THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


THE    HOLLAND    HOUSE   CIRCLE 


THE 

HOLLAND     HOUSE 
CIRCLE 


BY  .   s 
LLO YD  r  SANDERS 


WITH  TWENTY-FOUR   ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK  :   G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

LONDON:   METHUEN  &  CO. 

1908 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  does  not  purport  to  be  a  connected 
account  of  Holland  House,  since  that  ground 
has  already  been  covered  by  Princess  Liechten- 
stein in  her  well-known  work  on  the  subject,  by 
Faulkner,  the  historian  of  Kensington,  in  a  chapter 
based  on  information  supplied  by  the  third  Lord 
Holland,  and  by  Leigh  Hunt,  who,  in  his  pleasant, 
allusive  style,  recorded  his  personal  impressions  in 
"An  Old  Court  Suburb."  It  is  concerned  rather  with 
persons  than  the  place.  The  earlier  annals  of  Holland 
House  have  been  rapidly  summarised,  and  I  have 
devoted  my  attention  mainly  to  its  most  brilliant  age ; 
a  period  which  may  be  defined,  in  general  terms,  as 
coinciding  with  the  first  forty  years  of  last  century. 
The  materials  for  a  survey  of  that  famous  society 
have  been  collected  by  a  somewhat  wide  and  minute 
study  of  contemporary  memoirs  and  correspondence ; 
but  mere  lists  of  those  present  at  particular  dinners 
have  been  omitted,  as  calculated  to  produce  but  little 
information  and  much  tedium.  Foreigners  of  distinction 
like  Madame  de  Stae'l  have  not  been  excluded,  though 
their  association  with  Holland  House  may  have  been 


vi  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

brief.  Further,  regarding  the  host  and  hostess  as 
central  and  dominant  figures,  I  have  not  thought  it 
necessary  to  pursue  to  the  end  the  careers  of  friends 
like  Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  John  Russell,  who 
long  survived  them.  Instead  of  encumbering  the  page 
with  references,  I  have  compiled  a  bibliography  arranged, 
so  far  as  it  was  possible  to  do  so  without  repetition, 
in  sections  embracing  one  or  more  chapters. 

I  must  express  my  cordial  thanks  to  the  Committee 
of  White's  Club  for  enabling  me  to  include  in  the 
illustrations  a  reproduction  of  Dighton's  excellent 
caricature  of  Lord  Alvanley,  "  Going  to  White's." 
Count  d'Orsay's  sketch  of  Henry  Luttrell  would  also 
have  been  forthcoming  for  that  purpose  from  their 
valuable  collection,  but  it  was  not  at  the  moment 
accessible.  My  gratitude  is  also  due  to  Sir  J.  Tollemache 
Sinclair  for  permission  to  reproduce  Upton's  miniature 
of  Princess  Lieven,  while  the  authorities  of  the  British 
Museum,  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  and  Sir  John 
Soane's  Museum  have  readily  granted  facilities  for 
taking  the  various  photographs  enumerated  in  the  list 
of  illustrations. 

L.  S. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE  .  .        V 


SOME  WORKS  CONSULTED       .  .  .    XIX 


CHAPTER   I 


INTRODUCTORY 


The  founder  of  the  Fox  family — Sir  Stephen's  wealth — An  elderly 
bridegroom — Henry  Fox — A  runaway  match — Early  history  of 
the  manor  of  Kensington — Cope  Castle — The  Earl  of  Holland — 
Under  the  Commonwealth —A  house  to  let — Lady  Warwick  and 
Addison  —  The  last  of  the  Warwicks  —  A  Royal  suitor — Lord 
Holland's  cupidity — A  well-feathered  nest — The  beginnings  of 
Charles  Fox — His  brother  Stephen — Lord  Holland's  minority. 


CHAPTER    II 
LORD  HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  AND  EARLY  MANHOOD   .  .  .16 

Lord  Holland's  boyhood  —  Eton  and  the  Microcosm — Lord 
Holland  and  Canning — Christ  Church  and  Cyril  Jackson — 
Travels  in  France  and  Switzerland — Germany  and  the  French 
Revolution — Spain  and  Italy — Lord  Holland's  marriage — He 
takes  his  seat — The  secession  of  1797 — A  maiden  speech — Fox's 
letters  on  literature — A  visit  to  Paris — The  First  Consul — More 
visits  to  Spain — The  "  Lives "  of  Lope  de  Vega  and  Guillen 
de  Castro — "A  Dream"  —  Lord  Holland  as  editor  —  Fox's 
history — Lord  Holland  as  a  memoir  writer. 


vm 

CHAPTER   III 

PAGE 

LORD  HOLLAND  AS  A  STATESMAN      .  .  .  .  •      32 

The  Talents  Administration — Lord  Holland  becomes  Privy  Seal 
— Fall  of  the  Government — The  Whigs  in  opposition — Specula- 
tions on  office — Lord  Holland's  "  protests  " — Treason  penalties 
— Abolitionism  —  A  visit  to  Naples  —  Napoleon's  captivity — 
Arguments  con  and  pro — Lady  Holland  and  Napoleon — An 
historic  snuff-box. 

CHAPTER  IV 

UNDER   GEORGE   IV.   AND  WILLIAM    IV.  .  .  .  -44 

Queen  Caroline — An  unflattering  portrait — Creevey  on  the 
situation — Holland  House  and  the  Queen — Collapse  of  the 
Liverpool  Ministry  —  Canning's  Administration  —  A  possible 
Foreign  Secretary — Navarino  and  its  consequences — Chancellor 
of  the  Duchy — Lord  Holland  and  Reform — A  Whig  Nestor — 
Peel's  "  Hundred  Days  "  —  The  second  Melbourne  Ministry — 
The  Syrian  crisis — Lord  Holland's  death — His  political  character 
— Whiggism  and  Holland  House. 

CHAPTER  V 
HOST  AND   HOSTESS     .  .  .  .  .  .  .58 

Lord  Holland  at  home — As  a  conversationalist — A  man  of  many 
friendships — Lady  Holland's  autocracy — Sir  Henry  Holland's 
character  of  her — Historical  retorts — Exercises  of  authority — 
.  The  dinner-hour — A  crowded  table — Good  cheer — Lady  Holland 
in  society — On  her  travels — Lady  Granville's  satire  —  Lady 
Holland's  correspondence — Byron's  memoirs  —  "  Glenarvon  " 
Calantha  and  Barbary  House — Lady  Holland's  death — Guizot's 
character — Servants  and  flowers. 

CHAPTER  VI 

MISS  FOX  AND  JOHN  ALLEN  .  .  .  .  .78 

A  cultivated  maiden  lady — Jeremy  Bentham's  only  love — At 
Paris  and  Combe  Florey — Miss  Fox's  recollections — John  Allen's 
introduction  to  the  Hollands — A  philosopher  on  the  trot — An 
established  institution — Passages  of  arms — Political  and  irre- 
ligious opinions — An  armchair  statesman  — "  The  Rise  and 
Growth  of  the  Royal  Prerogative  " — Fugitive  writings — Allen 
and  Blanco  White — The  loss  of  a  friend — Allen's  death. 


CONTENTS  ix 

CHAPTER  VII 

PAGE 

HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND  FOX'S   FRIENDS  .  .  .  .90 

The  salon  in  England — The  dining-room  and  library  at  Holland 
House — Wanted,  a  Boswell — Greville's  record  of  conversation — 
Poets  and  women  of  genius — Lord  Melbourne  on  theology — A 
tolerant  atmosphere — General  Fitzpatrick — Indolent  but  saga- 
cious— Epigrams  and  the  "Rolliad" — Hare's  wit  —  An  oracle 
of  Brooks's — Lord  John  Townshend  and  Dudley  North — Adair 
and  the  Anti-Jacobin — St.  Petersburg  and  Constantinople — 
Adair  and  Stratford  Canning — Lord  Lauderdale — A  violent 
Whig  —  Lauderdale's  mission  to  France  —  A  "  cunning  old 
renegade" — "Citizen"  Stanhope — A  Jacobin  peer — Perverse 
inventions. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

MORE   FRIENDS   OF   FOX  .  .  .  .  .  .    108 

The  Anti-Jacobin  on  Erskine — A  flippant  conversationalist — 
"  Trial  by  jury  " — Impromptu  verse — Erskine's  eloquence — As 
Lord  Chancellor — A  graceless  old  age — Sheridan  and  the  Whigs 
— His  mystifications — Carlton  House  politics — An  isolated  poli- 
tician— Drury  Lane — Sheridan's  last  days — Sheridan  in  society 
— Sir  Philip  Francis  and  the  Prince — A  quarrel  with  Fox — 
"Junius  Identified  " — LordThurlow — An  extinguished  politician 
— Lord  Macartney  —  "  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  " — Sir  Gilbert 
Elliot — The  Portland  Whigs — The  Grenvilles  and  the  Whigs — 
Lord  Minto  in  India — Georgiana,  Duchess  of  Devonshire — The 
-  "  Passage  of  the  Mountain  of  St.  Gothard." 


CHAPTER    IX 
GRENVILLE,  GREY,  AND  WINDHAM   ..... 

"  Our  English  Cato  "— Grenville  and  Pitt—"  Most  affectionately 
yours" — The  "Talents"  Administration — The  Regency  Bill — 
Grenville's  rupture  with  the  Whigs — At  Dropmore — Lord  Grey's 
beginnings — His  quarrel  with  the  Regent — Grey  and  the  Penin- 
sular War — Madame  de  Lieven  and  Earl  Grey — The  Reform 
Cabinet — Life  at  Howick — Windham  and  his  diary — His  conver- 
sation and  tastes — "  Weathercock  Windham  " — As  Secretary  at 
War — "  That  excellent  statesman  " — Windham's  death. 


x  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

CHAPTER  X 

PAGE 
WHIGS  AND   IRISHMEN  ......    144 

The  third  Marquis  of  Lansdowne — His  junction  with  Canning 
— A  typical  Whig— Bowood  and  Lansdowne  House — Kindness 
to  Moore — Lord  Moira — The  negotiations  of  1812 — An  unadroit 
Mascarille — Thomas  Grenville — Tierney — His  duel  with  Pitt — 
Leader  of  the  House — Whitbread— "  The  Demosthenes  of  bad 
taste  " — An  impossible  Minister — Whitbread  and  the  Princess  of 
Wales — The  affairs  of  Drury  Lane  —  Little  Creevey — Lord 
Sefton — An  irresponsible  politician — Grattan's  maiden  speech — 
Catholic  emancipation — Grattan  in  society — His  attachment  to 
Rogers — "  Longbow  and  Strongbow  " — Curran's  appearance — 
Specimens  of  his  wit. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SOME   MEN   OF   LETTERS  ....  164 

Dr.  Parr — His  correspondence  with  Lord  Holland — The  doctor's 
retorts — His  friends  and  his  pets — "  Monk  "  Lewis — A  guest  of 
the  great — His  plays  and  ballads — Lewis  and  Scott — Hookham 
Frere — His  talk  and  his  habits — Frere  as  a  diplomatist — The 
Anti-jacobin  and  "The  Monks  and  the  Giants" — Frere  as  a 
translator. 


CHAPTER  XII 
ROGERS   AND   "  CONVERSATION  "   SHARP          ....    174 

Samuel  Rogers's  good  fortune — His  house  in  St.  James's  Place — 
— "  A  liberal  host " — Rogers's  intercourse  with  Fox — As  brother 
and  friend — Rogers's  jealousy — His  caustic  comments — His 
cadaverous  appearance — Built  of  a  piece — "  Columbus  " — Lord 
Dudley's  review — "Human  Life"  —  "Italy"  —  "Conversation" 
Sharp — As  host  and  politician — Sharp's  "  Letters  and  Essays." 


CHAPTER  XIII 
HENRY   LUTTRELL       .  .  .  .  .  .  .185 

The  premiership  of  wit — Luttrell's  social  position — "A  philo- 
sopher in  all  things  " — London  and  Paris — Luttrell's  epigrams 
— "Letters  to  Julia" — Gifford's  review — Almack's — The  Park 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAOK 

and  Kensington  Gardens— The  Argyll  Rooms  and  Brooks's— 
An  apostrophe  to  London — The  dead  season — Hunting  and  the 
House—"  Crockford  House  " — Luttrell's  last  years. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
SYDNEY  AND  ROBERT  SMITH  .  .  .  .  .   IQ5 

Sydney  Smith  on  Luttrell— Foston— Combe  Florey— As  a  social 
reformer— The  timidity  of  the  Whigs  — "Peter  Plymley's 
Letters" — "Persecuting  Bishops"  —  "Letters  to  Archdeacon 
Singleton  " — A  licensed  jester — His  letters  to  Lady  Holland — A 
parody  of  Mackintosh — A  sermon  on  temperance — Sydney 
Smith's  wit — Bobus  Smith — A  suppressed  individuality. 


CHAPTER  XV 
MOORE,   BYRON,  AND  SCOTT  ......  2O6 

Moore  and  Lady  Holland — The  "  Twopenny  Post  Bag  " — Moore 
and  Sheridan — Byron's  "  Memoirs  " — "  Tommy  dearly  loves  a 
lord  " — Moore's  independence  of  mind — "  Lalla  Rookh  "  and  the 
"  Irish  Melodies  " — "  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers  " — 
The  Drury  Lane  Committee — Lady  Caroline  Lamb — "  Glen- 
arvon  "  —  Byron  at  Holland  House  —  His  marriage  —  Lord 
Holland's  intervention  —  "Such  a  lovable  person" — Scott's 
quarrel  with  Lord  Holland — His  description  of  Holland  House 
— "  Tales  of  my  Landlord." 


CHAPTER  XVI 
AUTHORS  AND  WITS  .......  22O 

Campbell  and  the  King  of  Clubs — A  present  from  Lady  Holland 
— "  A  somewhat  awful  meeting  " — An  estrangement  and  recon- 
ciliation— Southey  and  Whig  principles — From  the  Edinburgh 
to  the  Quarterly — Hallam,  the  "bore  contradictor" — His  corre- 
spondence with  Lord  Webb  Seymour — A  domestic  martinet — 
Jekyll  and  his  puns — A  protege  of  George  IV. — Jekyll  on  Holland 
House — Lord  Alvanley  and  Talleyrand — Chief  of  the  ton — 
Alvanley's  money  affairs — His  jokes  and  appearance — Alvanley 
as  a  politician, 


xii  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

CHAPTER   XVII 

PAGE 
AMATEURS,   ARTISTS,  AND  ACTORS      .  .  .  .  .233 

Lord  Egremont — Life  at  Petworth — Payne  Knight — The  Elgin 
marbles — Lawrence  and  Lord  Holland — Leslie  and  Holland 
House — Hoppner — "Bilious  from  hard  work" — Wilkie's  pre- 
ciseness — At  Holland  House — Wilkie's  friends — Some  sculptors 
and  Canova  —  Kean  —  Jack  Bannister  —  John  Kemble  —  The 
Kemble  banquet. 

CHAPTER   XVIII 
MEN  OF  SCIENCE         .......  246 

Count  Rumford — "Useful"  and  "practical"  —  The  arrival  of 
Davy  —  His  marriage  and  knighthood  —  Lady  Davy  —  Sir 
Humphry's  carriage  and  four  —  Davy  and  Wollaston — "  A 
sporting  Archbishop" — Faraday — William  and  Alexander  von 
Humboldt — Alexander  in  society — His  reminiscences  of  England 
— Charles  Waterton — Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  at  Holland  House — 
Sir  Henry  Holland. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS  .....   255 

Serious  Whiggism — Dugald  Stewart  and  Bentham — Jeffrey — 
Mackintosh's  beginnings — The  King  of  Clubs — Mackintosh  in 
conversation — His  residence  in  India — Mackintosh  in  the  House 
— In  bondage  to  the  Whigs — Ignored  and  slighted — A  literary 
lotus-eater — Francis  Horner — His  arrival  in  London — Horner  in 
society — As  member  for  St.  Ives — Nominee  for  St.  Mawes — The 
Bullion  Committee — Horner's  illness  and  death — Romilly  and 
Dumont — Romilly's  parliamentary  diary — The  criminal  law — 
Romilly's  reforms  —  A  peace-at-any-price  man  —  Romilly's 
character  and  death. 


CHAPTER  XX 
LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS         ......   272 

Brougham's  descent  from  the  North — A  breach  and  its  cause — 
Brougham  in  Parliament — His  championship  of  the  Princess — 
A  proposed  settlement — Queen  Caroline's  trial — Brougham  as  a 


CONTENTS  xiii 

PACK 

reformer  —  On  the  woolsack  —  Brougham's  downfall  —  Lord 
Melbourne's  sentence — Brougham's  eccentricities  —  His  good 
qualities — The  rise  of  Denman — Solicitor-General  to  Queen 
Caroline — His  speech  and  its  sequel — At  Holland  House — A 
Whig  dinner-party — Plunket  and  the  Grenvilles — Irish  Attorney- 
General  and  Chancellor — Plunket's  oratory  and  puns — John 
Wishaw— "The  Pope"  and  "the  Mufti "  — Hobhouse  and 
Byron — Hobhouse  and  Burdett — "  Liberty  candidates  " — Ex- 
hausted enthusiasms. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
TORIES  AT  HOLLAND  HOUSE  .....   2Q2 

Wilberforce  and  Lord  Eldon — Lord  Stowell — A  great  character 
— Stowell's  penurious  habits — As  Judge  of  the  Admiralty  Court 
— Lord  Aberdeen  —  His  relations  with  Pitt  and  Dundas  — 
"Athenian  Aberdeen"  —  His  varied  attainments  —  As  envoy 
abroad — Aberdeen  and  Greece — His  domestic  afflictions. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
THE  CANNINGITES,   PALMERSTON,  AND  MELBOURNE  .  .  300 

The  friends  of  Canning — Palmerston — His  slow  advance — 
Palmerston  in  society — As  Foreign  Secretary — His  marriage — 
The  Syrian  crisis — Palmerston's  triumph — William  Lamb,  Lord 
Melbourne — His  marriage — Lamb  as  a  student — A  detached 
politician — As  a  Canningite — Home  Secretary — Lord  Melbourne's 
Premierships — His  unconventionality — His  character. 


CHAPTER    XXIII 

OTHER  COLLEAGUES  OF  CANNING     .  .  .  .  .  311 

Melbourne's  advice  to  Dudley — Dudley  as  Foreign  Secretary — 
"  Ivy  "  and  Bishop  Copleston  —  Dudley's  friendships  —  His 
conversation — His  relations  with  Holland  House — George  Ellis — 
"The  Rolliad"  and  the  Anti-Jacobin— Ellis's  friendships— The 
sixth  Earl  of  Carlisle — Lord  Lyndhurst — A  lawyer-politician — 
"For  'views'  read  '  prospects '" — Lyndhurst's  hospitality — His 
conversion  to  Toryism — Scarlett,  Lord  Abinger — Scarlett  and 
the  Whigs — Oui  s'excuse — "  Not  at  Home," 


xiv  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

PAGE 

FOREIGN   REFUGEES  AND  VISITORS  .....   323 

Ugo  Foscolo — A  "  tremendous  "  companion — "  From  a  lion  to  a 
bore" — Blanco  White — His  reception  at  Holland  House — A 
melancholy  tutor — With  Archbishop  Whately — White  becomes 
a  Unitarian — Calonne  —  His  exit  speech  —  Louis  Philippe — 
Etienne  Dumont  and  Mirabeau — Dumont's  worship  of  Bentham 
— Madame  de  Stae'l — "The  perpetual  motion" — A  welcome 
outstayed^ — Washington  Irving  —  George  Ticknor  —  His  im- 
pressions of  Holland  House. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

CONTINENTAL  DIPLOMATISTS  .....   335 

Metternich — Pozzo  di  Borgo  and  others — Van  der  Weyer — 
Princess  Lieven — A  "  tres  grande  dame  " — Her  intimacies — The 
eyes  and  ears  of  an  Embassy — The  Lievens'  recall — Madame  de 
Lieven's  last  years — Talleyrand  at  Holland  House — His  appear- 
ance and  conversation — His  affection  for  England  —  Count 
Montrond — A  salaried  clubman — His  relations  with  Talleyrand 
— Count  Flahault — A  Paris  salon — A  figure  of  the  Second 
Empire — Guizot's  mission  —  His  stories  of  Lady  Holland — 
Holland  House  and  the  Syrian  crisis. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  GREY  AND   MELBOURNE   MINISTRIES     ....   348 

Old  and  Young  Whigs — Spring-Rice  and  Abercromby — Lord 
Duncannon — A  healer  of  differences — The  Duke  of  Richmond — 
Lord  Althorp's  early  years — His  rooms  in  the  Albany — The 
leadership  of  the  House — An  indispensable  man — Neighbour 
and  country  gentleman — Lord  John  Russell  and  Holland  House 
— His  literary  efforts — The  coming  man — The  Reform  Bills — 
Lord  John  upsets  the  coach — As  leader  of  the  House — Whig 
legislation — Lord  John  at  home — The  Fox  Club — John  George 
Lambton — "Radical  Jack" — "A  victim  of  temper" — A  mission 
to  St.  Petersburg — The  Edinburgh  banquet — The  mission  to 
Canada — Brougham's  revenge — The  spoilt  child  of  society, 


CONTENTS  xv 

CHAPTER  XXVII 

PAGE 

A  MISCELLANEOUS  COMPANY  ....  .  365 

Jock  Campbell — Elected  to  Brooks's — Visits  to  Holland  House — 
Norton  v.  Melbourne — The  Irish  Chancellorship — Macaulay 
enters  Holland  House — Tears  and  a  scene — A  Cabinet  Minister 
— Macaulay  as  a  talker — Charles  Greville — A  political  factotum 
— The  friend  of  many — Poodle  Byng  and  Albany  Fonblanque — 
The  Grotes  at  Holland  House — Monckton  Milnes — Charles 
Dickens — The  next  generation — Conclusion. 


INDEX         ...  .  377 


SOUTH  VIEW  OF  HOLLAND  HOUSE  .  .  .  Frontispiece 

From  an  Engraving  in  Lysons"  "  Environs  of  London,"  1795. 

FACING  PAGE 

THORPE'S  PLAN  OF  HOLLAND  HOUSE         .          .          .          •     4 

From  the  Book  of  his  Designs  in  Sir  John  Soane's  Museum. 

LORD  HOLLAND  .  .  .  .  .  .  .32 

From  the  Painting  by  John  Simpson,  after  Charles  Hubert  Leslie,  K.A.,  in 
the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

NAPOLEON'S  SNUFF-BOX       .          .          .          .          .          .    42 

In  the  Gold  Room,  British  Museum. 

JOHN  ALLEN,  M.D.       .  .  .  .  .  .  .     80 

From  the  Painting  by  Sir  Edwin  Landseer,  R.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery. 

THE  LIBRARY  AT   HOLLAND   HOUSE  .  .  .  .90 

From  an  Engraving  in  the  Print  Room,  British  Museum,  after  the  Painting 
by  Charles  Robert  Leslie,  R.A. 

THE  DUCHESS  OF   DEVONSHIRE          .....   126 

From  an  Engraving   by  G.  Keating,  after   the  Painting   by   Sir   Joshua 
Reynolds,  P.R.A. 

WILLIAM  WINDHAM    .......    138 

From  the  Painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  P.R.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery. 

THE  MARQUIS  OF  LANSDOWNE  .....    146 

From  the  Painting  by  Henry  Walton,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

SAMUEL  ROGERS  .......   174 

From  the  Painting  byiThomas  Phillips,  R.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

GOING  TO  WHITE'S  .  .  .        ~.  .  .  .  192 

From  the  Caricature  of  William,  second  Lord  Alvanley,  by  Dighton.    In  the 
possession  of  White's  Club. 

xvii 


xviii  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

FACING  PAGE 

SYDNEY  SMITH  .  .  .  .  .  .  .196 

From  the  Painting  by  Henry  Perronet  Briggs,  R.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery. 

THOMAS  MOORE  .....  .   206 

From  the  Painting  by  John  Jackson,  R.A,,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

JOSEPH  JEKYLL  .......   228 

From  the  Drawing  by  George  Dance,  R.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

SIR   DAVID  WILKIE,   R.A.          ......   240 

From  the  Painting  by  Himself,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

SIR  JAMES   MACKINTOSH  ......   256 

From   the   Painting  by  Sir  Thomas   Lawrence,  P.R.A.,  in  the   National 
Portrait  Gallery. 

FRANCIS   HORNER        .......   262 

From  the  Painting  by  Sir  Henry  Raeburn,  R.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery. 

SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY  .  .  .  .  .  270 

From  the  Painting  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence,  P.R.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery. 

LORD  DENMAN  .......   286 

From  the  Painting  by  John  James  Halls,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

VISCOUNT  MELBOURNE  ......   304 

From  the  Painting  by  John  Partridge,  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 

PRINCESS  LIEVEN         .......  336 

From  the  Miniature  by  Upton.    By  kind  permission  of  Sir  J.  G.  Tollemache 
Sinclair. 

COUNT   MONTROND      .......   342 

From  the  Pen-and-ink 'Sketch  by  Count  d'Orsay,  published  in  "  The  Journal 
of  Thomas  Raikes." 

LORD  JOHN  RUSSELL  ......  356 

From  the  Painting  by.  Sir  Francis  Grant,  P.R.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery. 

LORD  MACAULAY  .......   368 

From  the  Painting  by  Sir  Francis  Grant   P.R.A.,  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery. 


SOME    WORKS    CONSULTED 


CHAPTER  I 

"  Holland  House."     By  Princess  Liechtenstein.     1874. 

"  History  and  Antiquities  of  Kensington."    By  Thomas  Faulkner. 

1820. 

"  The  Old  Court  Suburb."    By  James  Henry  Leigh  Hunt.     1855. 
"  Kensington,    Picturesque    and    Historical."      By  W.    J.    Loftie. 

1888. 

"  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Sir  Stephen  Fox."     1717. 
"  Diary  and  Correspondence  of  John  Evelyn."     Edited  by  W.  Bray. 

1850-52. 

"  Diary  of  Samuel  Pepys."    Edited  by  H.  B.  Wheatley.     1904. 
"  Memoirs  of  the   Reign  of    George   II."      By   Horace   Walpole. 

Edited  by  Lord  Holland.     1847. 
"Memoirs  of  the   Reign  of  George   III."    By   Horace    Walpole. 

Edited  by  Sir  D.  Le  Marchant.     1845. 
"  The  Letters  of  Horace  Walpole."    Edited  by  Mrs.  Paget  Toynbee. 

1903-5. 

"  Life  of  the  Earl  of  Shelburne."    By  Lord  Fitzmaurice.     1875. 
"  Memorials  and  Correspondence  of  Charles  James  Fox."     By  Earl 

Russell.    1853-7. 

"  Life  and  Times  of  Charles  James  Fox."     By  Earl  Russell.     1859-66. 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Later  Years  of  Charles  James  Fox."     By  J.  B. 

Trotter.     1811. 
"  The  Early  History  of  Charles  James  Fox."     By  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan. 

1880. 
"  Charles  James  Fox  :  A  Commentary."     By  Walter  Savage  Landor. 

Edited  by  Stephen  Wheeler.     1907. 
"The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lady  Sarah   Lennox."     Edited  by  the 

Countess  of  Ilchester  and  Lord  Stavordale.     1901. 

xix 


xx  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

CHAPTERS  II— VI 

"  Foreign  Reminiscences."    By  Lord  Holland.    Edited  by  his  Son, 

Henry  Edward,  Lord  Holland.     1850. 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party  during  my  Time."    By  Lord  Holland. 

Edited  by  his  Son,  Henry  Edward,  Lord  Holland.    1852-54. 
"  Further  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party."    Edited  by  Lord  Stavordale. 

1905. 
"The  Opinions   of    Lord    Holland."     Collected    and    edited    by 

D.  C.  Moylan.    1841. 
"A  Dream."    [By  Lord  Holland.]    1818. 
"A  History  of  the  Early  Part  of  the   Reign  of  James    II."    By 

C.  J.  Fox.     [Edited  by  Lord  Holland.]     1808. 
"  Lives  of  Lope  de  Vega  Carpio  and  Guillen  de  Castro."    By  Lord 

Holland.     1817. 

"  Statesmen  of  the  Time  of  George  III."  By  Lord  Brougham.  1843. 
"  Eminent  Statesmen  and  Writers."  By  Abraham  Hayward.  1880. 
"  The  Works  of  Lord  Macaulay."  Vol.  VI.  Edited  by  his  Sister, 

Lady  Trevelyan.     1866. 

"  Napoleon  :  the  Last  Phase."     By  the  Earl  of  Rosebery.     1904. 
"  Letters  of  Harriet,  Countess  Granville."     Edited  by  her  Son,  the 

Hon.  F.  Leveson-Gower.     1894. 

"Bygone  Years."     By  the  Hon.  F.  Leveson-Gower.     1905. 
"  Records  of  Later  Life."    By  Frances  Anne  Kemble.     1882. 
"  Glenarvon."     [By  Lady  Caroline  Lamb.]     1816. 
"  The  Works  of  Jeremy  Bentham."    Vols.  X.  and  XI.     (Life.)    By 

Sir  John  Bowring.     1843. 
"  Inquiry  into  the   Rise  and  Growth  of  the  Royal  Prerogative." 

With  Biographical  Notices.     By  John  Allen.     1849. 


CHAPTERS  VII— X 

"  The  Greville  Memoirs."     Edited  by  Henry  Reeve.    1888. 

"  The  Rolliad."     1795. 

"Selections  from  the  Anti- Jacobin."    Edited  by  Lloyd  Sanders. 

1904. 
"The  Life  of  Lord  Stratford  de  Redcliffe."    By  S.  Lane  Poole. 

1888. 
"  Lives  of  the  Lord  Chancellors."    Vol.  VI.    (Life  of  Lord  Erskine.) 

By  John,  Lord  Campbell.     1847. 
"  Life  of  Sheridan."    By  Thomas  Moore.     1825. 


SOME  WORKS  CONSULTED  xxi 

"Sheridan  :  a  Biography."     By  Eraser  Rae.     1896. 

"  Memoirs  of  Sir  Philip  Francis."    By  Joseph  Parkes  and  Herman 

Merivale.     1867. 
"  The  Francis  Letters."    Edited  by  Beata  Francis  and  Eliza  Keary. 

1901. 
"Our  First  Ambassador    to  China."     [George,  Earl  Macartney.") 

By  Helen  H.  Robbins.     1908. 
"  Life  and  Letters  of  Gilbert  Elliot,  first  Earl  of  Minto."    By  the 

Countess  of  Minto.    1874. 
"The  Two  Duchesses :  Georgiana,  Duchess  of  Devonshire ;  Elizabeth, 

Duchess  of  Devonshire."    Edited  by  Vere  Foster.     1898. 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Court  and  Cabinets  of  George   III."     1853-6. 

"  Memoirs  of  the  C^urt  of  the  Regency."     1856.    "  Memoirs  of 

the  Court  of  George  IV."     1858.    By  the  Duke  of  Buckingham. 
"  Life  of  Pitt."    By  Lord  Stanhope.     1861-2. 
"  Nugae  Metricae."     By  Lord  Grenville.     1824. 
"  Life  and  Opinions  of  Earl  Grey."     By  Sir  Frederick  Grey.     1861. 
"  Correspondence  of  Princess  Lieven  and  Earl  Grey."     Edited  and 

translated  by  Guy  Le  Strange.     1890. 
"Correspondence  of  William   IV.  and   Lord  Grey."     Edited    by 

Henry,  Earl  Grey.    1867. 
"  Diary  of  William  Windham."     Edited  by  Mrs.  Henry  Baring. 

1866. 

"  The  Creevey  Papers."     Edited  by  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell.     1903. 
"  The  Reminiscences  and  Recollections  of  Captain  Gronow."    With 

illustrations  from  contemporary  sources  by  J.  Grego.     1888. 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  Henry  Grattan."    By  his  Son, 

Henry  Grattan.     1839-46. 
"  Life  of  John  Philpot  Curran."     By  W.  H.  Curran.     1819. 


CHAPTERS  XI— XVI 

"The  Collected   Works    of    the   Rev.  Samuel  Parr,"  including  a 

biography    by    John    Johnstone,    M.D.,  and   correspondence. 

1828. 

"  Life  and  Correspondence  of  M.  G.  Lewis."     1839. 
"  The  Works  of  John  Hookham  Frere,  with  Memoir  by  Sir  Bartle 

Frere."     1874. 
"John  Hookham  Frere  and  his  Friends."      By  Gabrielle  Festing. 

1899. 


xxii  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

"  The  Early  Life  of  Samuel  Rogers."     By  P.  W.  Clayden.     1887. 
"  Rogers  and  His  Contemporaries."     By  P.  W.  Clayden.     1889. 
"  Rogers's  Poems,"  with  Memoir  by  Samuel  Sharpe.     1860. 
Notices    of     Rogers    in    the    Edinburgh    Review,  July,   1856  (by 

Hayward),  and  the  Quarterly  Review,  October,  1888  (by  Lady 

Eastlake). 

"  Letters  and  Essays."     By  Richard  Sharp.     1834. 
"  Letters  to  Julia."     By  Henry  Luttrell.     1822. 
"  Crockford  House."     [By  Henry  Luttrell.]     1827. 
"A  Memoir  of  the  Rev.  Sydney  Smith,"  by  his  Daughter,  Lady 

Holland,  with  a  Selection  from  his  Letters,  edited  by  Mrs. 

Austin.     1855. 

"  Works."  By  the  Rev.  Sydney  Smith.  1850. 
"  Sydney  Smith."  By  G.  W.  E.  Russell.  1905. 
Memoirs,  Journals,  and  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Moore.  Edited 

by  Lord  John  Russell.     1853-6. 

"  Thomas  Moore."     By  Stephen  Lucius  Gwynn.     1905. 
"  The  Poetical  Works  of  Thomas  Moore,"  with  Memoir  by  Charles 

Kent.     1879. 

"  Life  of  Lord  Byron."    By  Thomas  Moore.     1830. 
"  Works  of    Lord    Byron."     Poetry  edited   by   E.    H.   Coleridge. 

Letters  and  Journals  edited  by  R.  E.  Prothero.     1898-1904. 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott."     By  J.  G.  Lockhart. 

1837-38. 

"  A  Publisher  and  his  Friends."    By  Samuel  Smiles.     1891. 
"  Life  and  Letters  of  Thomas  Campbell."    By  William  Beattie. 

1849. 
"Correspondence  of  Robert  Southey."     Edited  by  the  Rev.  C.  C. 

Southey.    1849-50. 
"  Correspondence  of  Two  Brothers  :  the  eleventh  Duke  of  Somerset 

and  Lord  Webb  Seymour."    By  Lady  Guendolen  Ramsden. 

1906. 
"  Mrs.  Brookfield  and  her  Circle."    By  C.  H.  E.  and  F.  Brookfield. 

1906. 
"  Correspondence  of  Mr.  Joseph  Jekyll  with  his  Sister-in-law,  Lady 

Gertrude  Sloane  Stanley."    Edited  by  the  Hon.  A.  Bourke.    1890. 
"  A  Portion  of  the  Journal  kept  by  T.  Raikes,  Esq."     1856-57. 

CHAPTERS  XVII   AND  XVIII 

"  Autobiographical  Recollections  of  C.  R.  Leslie."    Edited  by  Tom 
Taylor.    1865. 


SOME  WORKS  CONSULTED  xxiii 

"  Life  of  B.  R.  Haydon."     Edited  by  Tom  Taylor.     1853. 

"Life  of  Sir  David  Wilkie."     By  Allan  Cunningham.     1843. 

"  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  J.  P.  Kemble."     By  James  Boaden.    1825. 

"  Collective  Works  of  Count  Rumford."  Vol.  V.  Life  by  George  E. 
Ellis.  1875. 

"  The  Life  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy."     By  John  Ayrton  Paris.     1831. 

"  Life  and  Letters  of  Faraday."    By  Dr.  Bence  Jones.     1870. 

"  Lives  of  the  Brothers  Humboldt."  By  P.  F.  D.  Klencke.  Trans- 
lated by  Juliette  Vauer.  1852. 

"  Autobiography  of  the  late  Sir  B.  C.  Brodie,  Bart."     1865. 

"  Recollections  of  Past  Life."     By  Sir  Henry  Holland.     1872. 


CHAPTERS  XIX  AND  XX 

"  Life  of  Lord  Jeffrey."     By  Lord  Cockburn.     1852. 

"  Life  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh."     By  his  Son,  R.  J.  Mackintosh. 

1836. 
Lord  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Mackintosh's  "  History  of  the  Revolution 

in  England  in  1688." 
"  Memoirs  and  Correspondence  of   Francis   Horner."    Edited  by 

Leonard  Horner.     1843. 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Sir  Samuel  Romilly."    Edited  by  his  Sons. 

1840. 

"  Life  and  Times  of  Henry,  Lord  Brougham."  By  Himself.  1871. 
"  Lives  of  the  Victorian  Chancellors."  Vol.  I.  By  J.  B.  Atlay.  1906. 
"  Memoir  of  Thomas,  first  Lord  Denman."  By  Sir  J.  Arnould. 

1873- 
"  The    Life,   Letters,    and    Speeches    of    Lord   Plunket."    By  his 

Grandson,  the  Hon.  David  Plunket.     1867. 
"  The  Pope  of  Holland  House."    By  Lady  Seymour.     1906. 
The  Edinburgh  Review,  January,  1871.    Containing  Extracts  from 

Lord  Broughton's  (John  Cam  Hobhouse's)  "  Recollections  of  a 

Long  Life." 
"  Life  of  Francis  Place.'1    By  Graham  Wallas.    1898. 


CHAPTERS  XXI— XXIII 

"  Life  of  William  Wilberforce."    By  his  Sons,  Robert  Isaac  and 
Samuel  Wilberforce.     1838. 


xxiv  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

"  Life  of  Lord  Chancellor  Eldon."    By  Horace  Twiss.     1844. 
"Sketch  of  the  Lives  of  Lords  Stowell  and  Eldon."    By  W.  E. 

Surtees.    1846. 

"  Life  of  Lord  Aberdeen."     By  Lord  Stanmore.     1893. 
"The  Life  of  Lord  Palmerston."     By  Lord  Dalling  and  Evelyn 

Ashley.     1870-76. 

"  Lord  Melbourne's  Papers."    Edited  by  Lloyd  C.  Sanders.     1889. 
"  Letters  of  Queen  Victoria."     Edited  by  Lord  Esher  and  A.  C. 

Benson.    1907. 

"  Letters  from  the  Earl  of  Dudley  to  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff."    1840. 
"  Letters  to  'Ivy'  from  the  first  Earl  of  Dudley."    Edited  by  S.  H. 

Romilly.     1905. 

The  Quarterly  Review,  December,  1840. 
"  Life  of  Lord  Lyndhurst."    By  Sir  Theodore  Martin. 
"  Memoir  of  Lord  Abinger."    By  P.  C.  Scarlett.     1877. 


CHAPTERS  XXIV  AND  XXV 

"  The  Life  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Blanco  White."    By  J.  H.  Thorn. 

1845. 
"  The  Great  Frenchman  and  the  Little  Genevese."    Translated  from 

Etienne  Dumont's  "  Souvenirs  sur  Mirabeau  "  by  Lady  Seymour. 

1904. 

"  Madame  de  Stael."    By  Lady  Blennerhassett.     1889. 
"  Madame  de  Stael  and  her  Lovers."    By  Francis  Gribble.     1907. 
"  Life,  Letters,  and  Journals  of  George  Ticknor."     1876. 
"  Memoires  etc.  laisses  par  le  Prince  de  Metternich."     1880-84. 
"  Letters  of  Dorothea,  Princess  Lieven."    Edited  by  L.  G.  Robinson. 

1902. 

"Talleyrand."     By  Lady  Blennerhassett.     1894. 
"  Memoires  pour  servir  a  1'histoire  de  mon  Temps."    Tome  5.     Par 

Francois  Pierre  Guillame  Guizot.     1858-67. 


CHAPTERS  XXVI   AND  XXVII 

'  Memoir  of  the  fifth  Duke  of  Richmond."     [By  Lord  William  Pitt 

Lennox.]     1862. 
"  Memoir  of  Lord  Althorp."    By  Sir  Denis  Le  Marchant.    1876. 


SOME  WORKS  CONSULTED  xxv 

"The  Life  of  Lord  John  Russell."     By  Sir  Spencer  Walpole.     1891. 
"  Life  and  Letters  of  the  first  Earl  of  Durham."    By  Stuart  Reid. 

1906. 
"Life  of  John,  Baron  Campbell.'1    Edited  by  his  Daughter,  the 

Hon.  Mrs.  Hardcastle.     1881. 
"  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay."    By  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan. 

1876. 
"  The  Life  and  Labours  of  Albany  Fonblanque."    Edited  by  E.  B. 

De  Fonblanque.     1874. 

"The  Personal  Life  of  George  Grote."    By  Mrs.  Grote.     1873. 
"The  Life  of  Richard  Monckton  Milnes,  first  Lord  Houghton." 

By  Sir  Thomas  Wemyss  Reid.     1890. 
"The   Letters  of  Charles  Dickens."     Edited  by  his  Sister-in-law, 

Georgina  Hogarth.     1880-82. 


THE 
HOLLAND  HOUSE  CIRCLE 


CHAPTER    I 
INTRODUCTORY 


The  founder  of  the  Fox  family—  Sir  Stephen's  wealth  —  An  elderly 
bridegroom  —  Henry  Fox  —  A  runaway  match  —  Early  history  of  the 
manor  of  Kensington  —  Cope  Castle  —  The  Earl  of  Holland  —  Under 
the  Commonwealth  —  A  house  to  let  —  Lady  Warwick  and  Addison 
—  The  last  of  the  War  wicks  —  A  Royal  suitor  —  Lord  Holland's 
cupidity  —  A  well-feathered  nest  —  The  beginnings  of  Charles  Fox  — 
His  brother  Stephen  —  Lord  Holland's  minority. 


Fox  family  rose  with  a  rapidity  characteristic 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  everything  was 
possible  to  the  adroit  courtier.  Sir  Stephen,  the 
founder  of  its  fortunes,  who  was  born  in  1627,  came 
from  what  his  anonymous  biographer  calls  "  honest  and 
approved  parents  of  a  middle  station  "  in  Wiltshire.  He 
entered  the  household  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
High  Admiral  of  England,  as  a  valet,  and  then  passed 
into  the  service  of  that  nobleman's  brother,  Lord  Percy. 
After  helping  his  master  in  the  management  of  the 
Ordnance  Board  during  the  campaign  of  1651,  which 
ended  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Royalists  at  Worcester, 


2  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

he  took  an  active  part  in  smuggling  Prince  Charles 
out  of  the  country,  and  was  steward  and  collector 
of  intelligence  to  the  vagabond  Court.  Through  the 
excellence  of  his  information  he  was  able  to  announce 
the  news  of  Cromwell's  death  to  the  Prince  six  hours 
before  any  express  reached  Brussels. 

After  the  Restoration,  Stephen  Fox  stood  high  in  the 
Royal  favour  and  held  various  lucrative  appointments. 
In  1680  his  friend  and  admirer,  Evelyn,  reckoned  him 
to  be  worth  ^200,000  or  more,  "  honestly  got  and 
unenvied,  which  is  next  to  a  miracle."  Honesty  is  a 
relative  virtue.  Fox's  confidences  to  the  sympathetic 
Pepys  show  that  he  farmed  the  Paymastership-General 
to  some  purpose,  extracting  a  comfortable  twelve  per 
cent,  interest  on  his  outlay  without  any  of  the  trouble 
that  attended  the  like  procedure  at  the  Admiralty.  He 
was,  in  fact,  a  typical  placeman  of  the  Restoration  age, 
"  as  humble  in  prosperity,"  writes  Evelyn,  "  and  as  ready 
to  do  a  courtesy  as  ever  he  was."  By  judiciously  absent- 
ing himself  from  Court  during  the  last  months  of  the 
reign  of  James  II.,  he  contrived  to  retain  his  appoint- 
ments under  William  III.,  and,  as  member  for  Salisbury, 
led  the  procession  of  the  House  of  Commons  at  Queen 
Anne's  coronation.  Part  of  his  wealth  was  devoted 
to  numerous  and  judicious  benefactions.  His  chief 
memorial  is  Chelsea  Hospital.  Whatever  may  be  the 
value  of  the  story  attributing  the  original  idea  to  Nell 
Gwynn,  Sir  Stephen  Fox  was  the  leading  spirit  in  the 
building  and  endowment  of  the  college.  He  frequently 
consulted  Evelyn  during  the  progress  of  the  scheme, 
and  the  diarist  noted  that  its  whole  management  was 
in  his  hands. 

In  his  seventy-seventh  year  the  veteran  official  found 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

himself  with  no  prospect  of  direct  descent  in  the  male 
line,  seven  sons  having  died  before  him.  Thereupon, 
being,  as  his  biographer  puts  it,  of  "a  vegete  and  hale 
constitution,"  he  married  Miss  Hope,  the  young  daughter 
of  a  Lincolnshire  clergyman.  They  had  five  children, 
of  whom  the  eldest  became  Earl  of  Ilchester  and  the 
second  was  Henry  Fox,  first  Lord  Holland.  Sir  Stephen 
Fox  died  on  October  28,  1716,  at  Chiswick,  in  a  country 
house  built  on  property  he  had  purchased  not  long 
before  the  Revolution,1  and  his  wife  survived  him  less 
than  two  years.  The  Foxes  are  said  to  have  inherited 
from  her  their  heavy  eyebrows  and  dark  complexions. 

Henry  Fox,  with  the  possible  exceptions  of  Carteret 
and  Lord  Shelburne,  is  the  most  conspicuous  example 
in  English  political  history  of  a  great  man  manque. 
Macaulay  dismisses  him,)  in  one  place,  as  a  needy 
political  adventurer.  But  that  strictest  of  Whigs  never 
gave  quarter  to  a  jovial  reprobate,  whether  he  was  a 
party  man  or  a  man  of  letters  like  Steele  or  Goldsmith. 
Elsewhere  Macaulay  does  Henry  Fox  more  substantial 
justice  in  the  sentence  :  "  He  was  the  most  unpopular  of 
the  statesmen  of  his  time,  not  because  he  sinned  more 
than  any  of  them,  but  because  he  canted  less."  Trained 
in  the  cynical  school  of  Walpole,  to  whom  he  was  a 
steady  adherent,  he  lived  on  into  an  age  elevated  to 
higher  aims  by  the  moral  earnestness  of  the  elder  Pitt. 
Judged  by  that  standard  Fox  was  found  hopelessly 
wanting ;  he  sank,  as  Wraxall  puts  it  in  his  memoirs, 
under  the  superior  ascendant.  Throughout  the  chaos 
of  administration  which  ensued  on  the  death  of  Henry 

1  This  house  stood  near  Chiswick  House,  Lord  Burlington's  villa. 
It  was  demolished  and  the  grounds  added  to  those  of  its  neighbour 
in  1812,  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  having  acquired  the  property. 


4  THE   HOLLAND  HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Pelham  in  1754,  he  made  ease  and  the  emoluments  of 
office  his  aims,  justifying  thereby  Lord  Chesterfield's 
censure  that  "he  had  not  the  least  notion  of,  or  regard 
for,  the  public  good  or  the  Constitution,  but  despised 
those  cares  as  the  objects  of  narrow  minds  or  the 
pretences  of  interested  ones." 

The  intimate  of  Horace  Walpole,  Charles  Hanbury 
Williams,  George  Selwyn  and  the  genial  but  unscru- 
pulous Rigby,  Henry  Fox  easily  made  his  way  in  society. 
But  he  set  the  fashionable  world  by  the  ears  when,  in 
July,  1744,  he  perpetrated  a  runaway  match  with  Lady 
Caroline  Lennox,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  Duke  of 
Richmond.  The  stir  was  prodigious,  and  Carteret  made 
it  an  excuse  for  hurling  a  characteristic  jest  at  the  first 
Minister,  the  Duke  of  Newcastle.  When  that  emotional 
statesman  was  lamenting  "  this  most  unfortunate  affair," 
Carteret  affected  to  think  that  our  fleets  or  our  armies 
were  beaten,  or  Mons  betrayed  to  the  French.  "  At  last 
it  came  out  that  Harry  Fox  was  married,  which  I  knew 
before.  .  .  And  this  man  is  Secretary  of  State  ! "  The 
Duke  and  Duchess  forgave  the  elopement  after  the 
birth  of  their  first  grandchild.  Henry  Fox  and  Lady 
Caroline  occupied  Holland  House  on  a  yearly  tenancy 
in  1749.  In  1767,  after  he  had  virtually  retired  from 
public  life  with  the  barony  of  Holland,  which  he 
attempted  in  vain  to  convert  into  an  earldom,  he 
purchased  the  property.  Let  us  digress  for  a  moment 
into  its  early  history. 

The  manor  of  Kensington,  on  which  Holland  House 
was  built,  formed  a  portion  of  the  estates  belonging  to 
one  Edwin,  described  as  a  thegn,  which  were  bestowed 
by  the  Conqueror  on  his  follower  Geoffrey  de  Montbrai 
or  Mowbray,  the  redoubtable  Bishop  of  Coutances. 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

Under  that  bellicose  prelate,  "  abler  at  war  than  at 
clerical  business,  and  fitter  to  lead  armed  men  in  battle 
than  to  teach  surpliced  clerks  to  sing  psalms,"  it  was 
held  by  Aubrey  de  Vere,  the  founder  of  the  line  who 
were  Earls  of  Oxford  until  well  into  the  sixteenth  century. 
Aubrey  de  Vere  became  tenant-in-chief,  and  in  spite  of 
alienations  and  forfeitures  his  descendants  clung  to  a 
portion  of  their  Kensington  property.  In  1626,  how- 
ever, the  poor  remnant,  reduced  to  the  nominal  rent 
of  West  Town,  passed  on  the  death  of  the  fourteenth 
Earl,  "  little  John  of  Camps,"  to  his  married  sister.  Thus 
it  was  owned  by  Sir  William  and  Lady  Cornwallis  and 
their  son-in-law,  Archibald,  seventh  Earl  of  Argyll,  before 
it  became  by  purchase  the  property  of  Sir  Walter  Cope, 
Chamberlain  of  the  Exchequer  in  the  reign  of  James  I. 
He  had  previously  bought  the  manor  of  Netting  Barns, 
but  only  to  sell  it  again.  However,  he  added  to  West 
Town  the  Earl's  manor  (Earl's  Court)  and  the  Abbot's 
manor  (the  land  round  St.  Mary  Abbot's  church)  and 
thus  owned  the  greater  part  of  Kensington. 

The  grandson  of  an  Oxfordshire  landowner,  who 
employed  his  leisure  in  composing  a  work  of  religious 
meditation,  and  in  compiling  the  "  Historic  of  the  two 
moste  noble  Captaines  in  the  Worlde,  Anniball  and 
Scipio,"  Sir  Walter  Cope  made  his  way  through  his 
friendship  with  the  younger  Cecil.  In  1604  he  com- 
missioned John  Thorpe,  the  first  architect  of  the  day, 
to  build  a  house  which  he  called  Cope  Castle.  The 
book  of  that  assiduous  worker's  designs,  which  has 
found  its  way  to  Sir  John  Soane's  Museum  in  Lincoln's 
Inn  Fields,  contains  a  ground-plan  of  the  mansion  with 
the  identification — "Sir  Walter  Coapes  at  Kensington, 
perfected  per  me  I.  T."  Building  and  lavish  entertain- 


6  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

ment — for  his  Sovereign  honoured  him  with  a  visit  in 
1612,  and  a  somewhat  doubtful  tradition  includes  the 
Duke  of  Sully,  the  profoundly  sagacious  Minister  of 
Henri  IV.  of  France,  among  his  guests  * — exercised  a 
baneful  influence  upon  the  finances  of  the  owner  of  Cope 
Castle,  and  he  died  .£27,000  in  debt.  But  he  had  at  least 
the  consolation  of  having  married  his  only  child  Isabel 
to  Henry  Rich,  Earl  of  Holland,  who,  next  to  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  was  the  most  magnificent  courtier  of 
the  time. 

Thus  Cope  Castle  became  Holland  House,  and  a 
scene  of  splendid  hospitality.  Rich  added  its  wings 
and  arcades,  not  altogether  to  the  improvement  of  the 
original  design,  and  erected  a  pleasing  Inigo  Jones 
gateway  in  the  courtyard,  which  was  subsequently 
removed  to  the  entrance  of  the  pleasure  grounds.  He 
also  commissioned  Francis  Cleyn,  a  German  artist  of 
Italian  training,  to  decorate  the  interior,  and  Van  Dyck 
to  paint  his  portrait.  Dependent  for  his  rapid  rise 
on  his  handsome  person  and  winning  manners,  Rich 
resembled  Buckingham,  the  splendid  being  on  whom 
he  founded  himself,  in  his  inability  to  penetrate  beneath 
the  surface  of  events.  As  the  representative  of  Charles, 
Prince  of  Wales,  at  the  French  Court  he  made  love  to 
Henrietta  Maria  with  spirited  ease  ;  but  the  negotiations 
for  the  marriage  treaty  were  beyond  him,  and  they 
passed  into  the  hands  of  a  safer  diplomatist  in  Lord 
Carlisle.  Buckingham  contrived,  nevertheless,  to  get 

1  Sully's  mission  to  the  Court  of  James  I.  was  in  1603,  a  year  or 
so  before  Cope  began  building,  if  the  accepted  date  is  correct.  He 
was  possibly  entertained  by  the  Chamberlain  of  the  Exchequer  at 
"  the  Moats  "  in  West  Town,  where  Cope  lived  while  superintending 
the  erection  of  Holland  House,  but  his  memoirs  are  silent  on  the 
point. 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

him  raised  to  the  rank  of  Earl,  a  little  more  than  a 
year  after  he  had  been  created  Baron  Kensington — a 
title  derived  from  his  wife's  property.  Holland  intrigued 
against  Strafford,  and  refused  to  join  Charles  I.  at  York, 
when  affairs  were  hastening  to  a  crisis,  thus  alienating 
the  Court,  without  gaining  the  confidence  of  Parliament. 
"  He  was  a  very  well-bred  man,"  writes  Clarendon,  "  and 
a  fine  gentleman  in  good  times  ;  but  too  much  desired  to 
have  ease  and  plenty  when  the  King  could  have  neither, 
and  did  think  poverty  the  most  unsupportable  thing  that 
could  befall  any  man  in  his  condition."  This  character 
explains  the  unhappy  indecision  which  finally  brought 
him  to  the  scaffold  in  1649,  after  he  had  appeared  in  arms 
for  the  King  at  Kingston-on-Thames  and  had  been  taken 
prisoner  at  St.  Neots.  He  died  gallantly,  attired,  an 
exquisite  to  the  last,  in  a  white  satin  waistcoat  and  white 
satin  cap  with  silver  lace. 

Lord  Fairfax  occupied  Holland  House  after  the 
execution  of  the  Earl,  but  his  residence  must  have 
been  brief,  since  he  had  his  hands  full  with  his  campaign 
in  the  West.  We  may  also  believe,  or  disbelieve,  the 
story  that  Cromwell  held  his  conferences  with  Ireton 
on  the  lawn,  the  deafness  of  his  subordinate  rendering 
it  expedient  that  they  should  be  out  of  earshot.  Sober 
history  relates,  however,  that  as  it  lay  outside  the 
entrenchments  of  Hyde  Park,  it  was  the  spot  where 
the  baffled  Corporation  and  Presbyterian  remnant  of  the 
Commons  met  the  all-powerful  Army  in  August,  1647, 
after  which  the  soldiers  marched  into  the  heart  of  the 
City  "  with  boughs  of  laurel  in  their  hats."  The  rulers 
of  the  Commonwealth  had  every  reason  for  refraining 
from  extreme  measures  against  the  family,  since 
Holland's  elder  brother,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  was  a 


8  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

staunch  supporter  of  the  Presbyterian  party.  The 
widowed  Countess  was  permitted  to  return  to  her  home, 
and  even  gave  stage-plays,  acted  under  the  nose  of  an 
austere  Government. 

The  Restoration  failed  to  re-establish  the  fortunes  of 
the  family,  though  the  second  Lord  Holland  succeeded 
to  the  title  and  estates  of  the  Earls  of  Warwick.  The 
house,  down  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
was  not  unfrequently  let.  Among  its  occupants  was 
William  Penn,  when  he  was  holding  long  audiences 
with  James  II.  in  order,  as  he  hoped,  to  secure  tolera- 
tion for  the  Quakers,  and  at  the  hour  when  he  rose 
it  would  be  crowded  by  as  many  as  two  hundred  suitors. 
Just  after  the  Revolution  Holland  House  narrowly 
escaped  becoming  a  Court  residence.  It  was  renovated 
for  the  King  and  Queen  in  1689,  at  the  cost  of  some 
^1,500.  But  in  the  end  William  III.  fixed  his  choice  on 
Nottingham  House,  the  suburban  residence  of  the  Earl 
of  Nottingham,  though  the  Court  stayed  at  Holland 
House  from  October  I4th  to  December  24th  while 
Kensington  Palace,  as  it  became,  was  being  prepared 
for  its  reception.  In  1734  the  London  Daily  Mercury 
of  May  6th  contained  the  following  announcement : 
"  Holland  House  and  Gardens  are  put  in  order  for 
the  reception  of  lodgers  there  against  the  Court  removes 
to  Kensington  Palace." 

The  Rich  family,  then,  must  have  occupied  Holland 
House  but  intermittently  during  this  period  of  its  vicissi- 
tudes. It  was  in  the  reign  of  William  III.  that  John 
Aubrey,  the  antiquary,  chronicles  the  death  of  the  beauti- 
ful Lady  Diana  of  small-pox,  after  her  apparition  had 
appeared  to  her  as  she  was  walking  in  the  garden  at 
eleven  o'clock  to  take  the  fresh  air  before  dinner.  The 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

Earl  of  Warwick  and  Holland  figures  in  "  Esmond "  as 
Lord  Mohun's  supporter  in  the  duel  with  Lord  Castle- 
wood,  and  history  records  that  the  pair  were  concerned 
in  a  curious  attempt  to  override  the  Bishop  of  London's 
right  of  presentation  and  to  impose  a  vicar  of  their  own 
on  Kensington  parish.  But  the  episode  that  stands  out 
from  the  annals  of  the  house  is  the  marriage  of  Addison 
to  the  widowed  Countess  of  Warwick  on  August  3,  1716, 
and  his  subsequent  residence  and  death  at  Holland 
House.  According  to  a  well-worn  passage  in  Johnson's 
"  Lives  of  the  Poets,"  the  union  resembled  that  in  which 
a  Sultan  gives  his  daughter  a  man  as  her  slave,  and  it  is 
supposed  to  have  resulted  in  unhappiness.  Macaulay 
supports  the  story  to  the  extent  of  saying  that  the  tradi- 
tion began  early,  and  that  we  have  nothing  to  oppose  to  it. 
Yet  Addison  left  his  fortune  at  Lady  Warwick's  disposal, 
and  she,  for  her  part,  bequeathed  one  annuity  of  fifty 
pounds  to  Mrs.  Coombes,  "the  sister  of  my  late  dear 
husband,  Mr.  Addison,"  and  another  of  ten  to  the  poor 
of  Bilton,  where  his  only  daughter  lived.  In  giving  him 
her  hand  she  committed  no  pronounced  act  of  con- 
descension, since  shortly  after  the  marriage  Sunderland 
made  him  a  Secretary  of  State,  chiefly  on  account  of  his 
personal  charm  and  literary  fame.  The  rapid  decline  of 
his  health  is  the  true  explanation  of  any  moroseness  that 
Addison  may  have  imported  into  his  relations  with  his 
wife.  In  1719  came  the  "  awful  scene,"  as  Johnson  calls 
it,  immortalised  by  Tickell  in  a  fine  couplet,  when  he 
summoned  the  young  Earl  to  his  bedside  and  said,  "  See 
in  what  peace  a  Christian  can  die." 

To  what  extent  Lord  Warwick  stood  in  need  of  his 
stepfather's  lesson  we  cannot  really  tell.  Tradition  makes 
a  rake  of  him,  and  he  acted  as  talebearer  to  Pope  during 


io  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  quarrel  between  Addison  and  that  splenetic  individual. 
But  he  died  too  soon  to  have  done  much  harm,  since  he 
was  called  upon  to  carry  the  admonition  into  practice 
within  three  years  of  its  delivery.  The  title  and  estates 
passed  to  a  cousin,  Edward  Rich,  who  was  last  of  his 
line.  The  property  then  went  to  his  cousin,  William 
Edwardes,  who,  in  1776,  was  raised  to  the  Irish  peerage 
as  Lord  Kensington,  nine  years  after  the  sale  of  his 
estates  to  Henry  Fox. 

Under  the  ownership  of  Henry  Fox,  Holland  House 
was  enriched  by  numerous  specimens  of  Reynolds's  art, 
including  the  well-known  painting  of  Lady  Sarah  Lennox 
his  sister-in-law,  Lady  Susan  Strangways  his  niece,  and 
Charles  James  Fox  his  son.1  Theatrical  performances 
were  also  given  there,  which  Horace  Walpole  greatly 
admired.  "The  two  girls  [Lady  Sarah  and  Lady  Susan] 
were  delightful,"  he  records,  "  and  acted  with  so  much 
nature  and  simplicity  that  they  seemed  the  very  things 
they  represented."  Lady  Sarah,  who  lived  under  the 
guardianship  of  her  eldest  sister,  Lady  Holland,  might 
have  left  Holland  House  to  be  married  to  George  III.  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  if  she  had  not  turned  a  deaf  ear  to 
the  circumspect  advances  of  her  Royal  suitor,  always 
supposing,  however,  that  she  could  have  overcome  the 
objections  of  the  Princess-mother  and  Lord  Bute. 
Henry  Fox's  attitude  towards  the  affair  amounted  to  no 
more  than  very  benevolent  neutrality,  though  Horace 
Walpole  accused  him  of  going  off  to  his  country  house 
at  Kingsgate,  near  the  North  Foreland,  to  hide  his 

1  Princess  Liechtenstein  gives  an  animated  description  of  the 
Reynolds  pictures  at  Holland  House.  The  famous  portrait  of 
Baretti,  Dr.  Johnson's  friend,  was  acquired  by  the  third  Lord 
Holland  in  exchange  from  Lord  Hertford. 


INTRODUCTORY  n 

intrigues,  leaving  Lady  Sarah  at  Holland  House,  "  where 
she  appeared  every  morning  in  a  field  close  to  the  great 
road  (where  the  King  passed  on  horseback)  in  a  fancied 
habit,  making  hay." 

Henry  Fox's  disinterestedness  on  this  occasion  comes 
as  a  rare  relief  to  a  career  of  persistent  self-seeking.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  George  III.,  his  junction 
with  Lord  Bute,  the  best  hated  man  south  of  the  Tweed, 
brought  upon  him  an  odium  which  pursued  him  into 
retirement  and  embittered  his  last  years.  He  heaped 
appointment  on  appointment ;  forced  the  reluctant  King 
to  grant  a  peerage  to  his  wife  ;  manoeuvred  Pitt  and  the 
Duke  of  Newcastle  into  resigning,  and  coerced  Parlia- 
ment and  the  Whig  aristocracy  by  a  judicious  system  of 
rewards  and  punishments.  He  was  fully  conscious  of 
his  unpopularity,  though  in  a  sanguine  moment  he 
wrote  :  "  Instead  of  what  I  expected,  I  believe  that  in  no 
fortnight  since  the  year  1756  have  I  ever  been  less  abused 
than  in  this  last."  Lord  Shelburne,  one  of  his  con- 
federates, declared  that,  having  filled  up  the  appointments 
from  which  the  Duke  of  Newcastle's  friends  had  been 
ejected,  he  no  longer  took  any  trouble  with  the  business 
or  the  individuals  of  the  House  of  Commons.  His  main 
object  was  to  secure  a  safe  retreat  with  his  spoils.  To 
that  end  he  took  a  peerage,  clinging  the  while  to  the 
lucrative  post  of  Paymaster-General,  though  Shelburne, 
Rigby,  and  his  faithful  cousin  Calcraft  warned  him  that 
by  so  doing  he  would  expose  himself  to  the  worst  impu- 
tations. In  1765,  however,  the  pertinacity  of  George 
Grenville,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  forced  him  to 
resign  the  appointment. 

"  Old  and  abandoned  by  each  venal  friend,"  according 
to  Gray's  biting  lampoon,  Lord  Holland  lived  for  nine 


12  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

years  longer,  in  constant  apprehension  of  having  to  dis- 
gorge his  dubiously  acquired  gains.  Proceedings  were 
actually  begun  against  him  in  the  Court  of  the  Exchequer 
and  stayed  only  by  a  writ  of  the  Crown,  and  in  a  petition 
from  the  Livery  of  the  City  presented  to  the  King  he 
was  unceremoniously  styled  "  the  public  defaulter  of 
unaccounted  millions."  His  actual  offence  consisted  in 
holding  the  Pay  Office  during  a  prolonged  period  when 
the  existence  of  war  rendered  it  unusually  lucrative.  In 
making  private  profit  by  investing  Exchequer  balances 
on  his  own  account,  and,  as  his  detailed  statement  shows, 
by  selling  out  at  judicious  moments,  he  was  only  acting 
as  all  his  predecessors,  except  Pitt,  had  acted  before  him, 
and  Pitt's  conduct  was  regarded  as  a  miracle  of  dis- 
interestedness. Still  the  public  were  justified  in  thinking 
that  he  grew  rich  much  too  quickly.  At  his  death,  in 
1774,  he  left  his  widow  ^2,000  a  year,  Holland  House, 
and  Government  securities  amounting  to  some  ^120,000. 
To  his  three  sons  he  left  ^50,000  in  money,  and  a  sine- 
cure worth  ^23,000  a  year,  and  he  had  already  paid  at 
least  .£200,000  of  debts  for  Stephen,  the  eldest,  and 
Charles,  the  second.  To  Stephen,  besides,  he  gave 
between  ;£4,ooo  and  ^5,000  a  year  in  land  ;  Charles 
received  the  Kent  property  and  ^900  a  year  ;  Henry,  an 
estate  in  the  North,  and  ^500  a  year.  Lord  Holland  had 
certainly  feathered  his  nest  to  some  purpose. 

Gray  exaggerated  the  reclusiveness  of  Lord  Holland's 
life  after  his  retirement  from  politics.  He  had  quarrelled 
with  Shelburne  and  Rigby,  but  he  retained  the  friendship 
of  George  Selwyn  and  Horace  Walpole,  and  it  was 
transmitted  to  the  second  and  third  generations  of  his 
family.  Gardening  and  building  in  various  eccentric 
styles  at  Kingsgate  seem  to  have  been  his  favourite 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

occupations,  and  Charles  Fox  inherited  the  first  of  them. 
Lord  Holland's  friend  Charles  Hamilton,  of  Pain's  Hill, 
laid  out  the  grounds  to  the  west  of  the  house,  turfed  the 
walks,  and  planted  the  cedars.  His  chief  concern  was 
the  forming  of  his  sons,  a  duty  he  cannot  be  said  to  have 
discharged  to  edification.  He  had  provided  Stephen  and 
Charles  with  tutors  and  sent  them  to  Eton,  where 
Shelburne,  no  friendly  witness,  it  is  true,  declared  that  the 
"  extravagant  vulgar  indulgence  "  of  their  father  produced 
a  change  for  the  worse  in  the  morals  of  the  school.  They 
were  allowed  to  gratify  every  whim,  and  Lord  Holland 
even  interrupted  Charles's  education  at  Eton  and  Hert- 
ford College,  Oxford,  to  initiate  him  in  the  fashionable 
dissipations  of  the  Continent.  His  conception  of  parental 
responsibilities  began  and  ended  with  liberal  supplies  of 
pocket-money  and  the  discharge  of  liabilities  whenever 
they  became  pressing.  As  a  matter  of  course,  he  bought 
them  seats  in  Parliament,  and  thus  Charles  became 
member  for  Midhurst  in  March,  1768,  though  he  had 
barely  turned  nineteen  and  was  wandering  about  Italy. 
He  lived  partly  at  Holland  House  and  partly  in  lodgings 
with  Stephen,  and,  after  the  latter  had  married,  with  his 
cousin,  Richard  Fitzpatrick,  for  company.  It  was  during 
the  first  partnership  that  George  Selwyn  congratulated 
the  landlord,  an  Italian  warehouseman  by  trade,  on  keep- 
ing two  of  the  finest  pickles  in  London.  The  easy-going 
father  of  Charles  Fox  made  no  attempt  to  control  either 
his  political  escapades,  which  culminated  in  his  dismissal 
from  the  Treasury  Board,  "  for  great  flippancies  in  the 
House  towards  Lord  North,"  as  Horace  Walpole  put  it, 
or  his  gambling  at  Newmarket  and  his  cards  at  Almack's 
and  Brooks's.  But  in  the  year  of  his  death  Lord  Holland 
saved  his  favourite  son  Trom  ruin.  The  crash  was 


14  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

hastened  by  the  birth  of  a  son  to  Stephen,  whereby 
another  life  was  interposed  between  Charles  Fox  and  the 
parental  wealth.  His  jest  that  the  boy  was  born,  like  a 
second  Messiah,  for  the  destruction  of  the  Jews,  fell  wide 
of  the  mark.  They  came  within  a  little  of  destroying 
him,  and  Lord  Holland  had  to  provide  no  less  than 
^140,000  to  save  him  from  bankruptcy. 

Stephen,  the  second  Lord  Holland,  died  within  six 
months  of  his  father,  leaving  a  widow  and  two  young 
children  behind  him.  During  his  short  life  he  pervaded 
politics  as  an  engaging  and  not  too  serious  figure.  In 
the  House  he  vied  with  his  brother  in  audacity  ;  at 
Brooks's  he  played  as  desperately.  He  was  stouter 
than  Charles,  but  bore  the  infliction  with  indifference, 
even  though  at  a  fancy  ball,  held  in  the  Pantheon,  a 
Smithfield  butcher  took  to  following  him  about,  feeling 
him  in  the  ribs  and  calculating  his  weight  in  stones. 
Sometimes  he  despaired  of  the  Republic,  and  Lord 
Carlisle,  a  bosom  friend  of  the  two  brothers,  described 
him  as  writing  to  the  papers,  and  signing  himself  "A 
Stander-by  who  has  his  doubts."  His  marriage  with 
Lady  Mary  Fitzpatrick,  daughter  of  the  first  Earl  of 
Upper  Ossory  and  sister  of  Richard  Fitzpatrick,  does 
not  seem  to  have  overwhelmed  him  with  a  sense  of 
responsibility.  They  lived  during  the  Parliamentary 
recesses  at  Winterslow  House,  near  Salisbury,  and  when 
it  was  destroyed  by  fire,  Lord  Carlisle's  unfeeling  com- 
ment was,  "  If  Lady  Mary  was  much  alarmed,  or  if 
the  birds  were  really  burnt  to  death,  I  should  be  very 
sorry.  As  this  is  the  first  misfortune  to  Stephen  that 
he  did  not  bring  upon  himself,  all  compassionate 
thoughts  and  intentions  may  be  turned  from  Charles 
to  him."  The  catalogue  of  his  library,  which  was  sold 


INTRODUCTORY  15 

at  his  death,  proves  him  to  have  been  a  discriminating 
collector  of  books. 

During  the  minority  of  the  third  Lord  Holland, 
Holland  House  was  let,  at  one  time  to  Lord  Rose- 
bery,  at  another  to  Mr.  Bearcroft.  Under  such  shifting 
conditions  it  fell  out  of  repair,  and  much  of  Cleyn's 
decoration  was  irretrievably  ruined.  So  late  as  1804 
Fox  wrote  to  his  nephew,  "Poor  Holland  House  is 
said  to  be  in  a  bad  way ;  I  have  not  seen  it ;  but  I 
find  there  is  a  terrible  outcry  against  its  weakness,  so 
that  I  fear  it  cannot  stand."  The  observations  of  Sir 
Gilbert  Elliot,  afterwards  Lord  Minto,  were  to  the  same 
effect.  But  the  presumption  must  be  that  rumour  had 
exaggerated  the  state  of  affairs,  since  Lord  Holland 
appears  to  have  entrusted  the  restoration  of  the  house 
several  years  before  that  date  to  George  Saunders,  a 
well-known  architect  of  the  day.  Faulkner,  the  historian 
of  Kensington,  writing  in  1820,  alludes  to  a  number  of 
alterations  which  had  greatly  transformed  the  interior. 


CHAPTER    II 
LORD  HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  AND  EARLY  MANHOOD 

Lord  Holland's  boyhood — Eton  and  the  Microcosm — Lord  Holland 
and  Canning — Christ  Church  and  Cyril  Jackson — Travels  in  France 
and  Switzerland — Germany  and  the  French  Revolution — Spain  and 
Italy — Lord  Holland's  marriage — He  takes  his  seat — The  secession 
of  1797 — A  maiden  speech — Fox's  letters  on  literature — A  visit  to 
Paris — The  First  Consul — More  visits  to  Spain — The  "  Lives  "  of 
Lope  de  Vega  and  Guillen  de  Castro — "A  Dream" — Lord  Holland 
as  editor — Fox's  history — Lord  Holland  as  a  memoir  writer. 

AFTER  his  brother  Stephen's  death  Fox  was  an  in- 
fluence, rather  than  a  presence,  at  Holland  House. 
He  acted  as  one  of  the  guardians  of  his  nephew, 
Henry  Richard,  who,  born  in  November,  1773,  was 
brought  up  chiefly  by  his  maternal  uncle,  Lord  Ossory, 
a  friend  of  David  Hume  and  a  lover  of  letters  and 
seclusion.  From  the  fire  to  which  Lord  Carlisle  lightly 
alluded  the  child  was  saved  by  his  mother  at  the  risk 
of  her  own  life,  but  four  years  later  she  died.  Lord 
Holland  inevitably  followed  in  his  uncle's  footsteps  to 
Eton,  and  in  due  course  became  head  of  the  school. 
He  resided  for  nearly  ten  years,  a  period  by  no  means 
uncommon  before  preparatory  schools  had  assumed  their 
present  importance  in  the  educational  system.  It  was  a 
period  of  brilliant  boys,  rendered  remarkable  by  the 

16 


LORD   HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  17 

literary  beginnings  of  Canning  and  Hookham  Frere 
in  the  Microcosm,  but  of  undistinguished  Masters  and 
Fellows.  Lord  Holland's  early  days,  like  those  of 
Sydney  Smith  at  Winchester,  were  embittered  by  the 
most  ruthless  fagging.  Samuel  Rogers  relates  that  he 
was  forced  to  toast  bread  with  his  fingers  for  another 
boy's  breakfast.  A  fork  was  sent  him  from  home, 
but  his  fag-master  broke  it  over  his  head  and  still 
compelled  him  to  prepare  the  toast  in  the  more  primitive 
way.  In  consequence  of  this  process,  continues  Rogers, 
his  fingers  suffered  so  much  that  they  always  retained  a 
withered  appearance. 

Fox's  correspondence  with  his  "  dear  young  one  "  is 
a  model  for  elderly  relatives.  He  discusses  scholar- 
ship on  equal  terms,  and  politics  without  the  smallest 
assumption  of  superiority.  The  letters  begin  in  1791, 
by  which  date  Lord  Holland  had  reached  Christ  Church, 
Oxford,  where  Cyril  Jackson  was  Dean,  and  had  become 
a  hard-reading  undergraduate  with  Canning,  "  Bobus " 
Smith,  and  Lord  Morpeth,  Lord  Carlisle's  son,  as  his 
intimate  friends.  An  Eton  "Montem"  elicited  one  of 
the  earliest  of  Fox's  letters  to  his  nephew.  Mrs. 
Armitstead  was  his  mistress,  whom  he  married  four 
years  later  : 

"Mrs.  Armitstead  and  I,  and  perhaps  one  or  two  more, 
mean  to  dine  at  Maidenhead  Bridge  on  Saturday,  and  to  go 
after  dinner  on  the  water  to  see  the  boys  row  up  to  Surly 
Hall,  and  I  wish  very  much  you  would  come  and  meet  us.  I 
know  you  would  like  to  see  whether  things  go  on  as  well  as 
in  your  time.  Pray,  come,  and  bring  Canning  with  you,  if 
he  likes  it." 

From  a  subsequent  letter  it  may  be  gathered  that 
c 


i8  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Canning  duly  came,  and  won  the  hearts  of  Fox  and 
Mrs.  Armitstead  by  praising  Lord  Holland's  jucunditas. 
The  Oxford  friendship,  however,  did  not  continue 
beyond  undergraduate  days  ;  accident,  not  inclination, 
caused  the  pair  to  drift  apart.  Meeting  by  chance 
years  afterwards,  they  dined  together  at  Holland  House, 
in  1822,  at  an  important  crisis  of  Canning's  life,  when, 
despairing  of  making  his  way  in  English  politics,  he 
had  accepted  the  Governor-Generalship  of  India.  The 
trick  of  mystification,  for  which  his  enemies  reproached 
him,  disappeared  before  Lord  Holland's  geniality,  and 
he  confided  to  his  host  that  Catholic  Emancipation 
and  other  great  Whig  measures,  including  Parliamentary 
Reform,  must,  in  his  opinion,  be  carried  before  his 
return,  though  only  after  a  struggle,  which  might 
break  up  both  the  Whig  and  Tory  Parties  ;  and 
thus  the  field  would  be  left  open  to  him  under  advan- 
tages such  as  he  had  never  enjoyed.  Should,  however, 
the  settlement  of  Parliamentary  Reform  fall  upon  him, 
he  would  give  the  Radicals  a  dose  too  strong  for  their 
stomachs.  These  calculations  were  thrown  out  by  the 
death  of  Lord  Castlereagh,  which  placed  the  Foreign 
Office  in  Canning's  hands,  and  before  even  Catholic 
Emancipation  could  be  carried  he  had  gone  down  into 
the  grave.  But  the  confession,  which  is  recorded  in  Sir 
Denis  le  Marchant's  "  Life  of  Lord  Althorp "  and  in 
the  "  Greville  Memoirs,"  throws  an  interesting  light  upon 
the  designs  of  a  singularly  detached  politician,  who  was 
more  suited,  perhaps,  to  the  French  system  of  govern- 
ment by  group  than  to  ours  of  government  by  party. 
After  taking  his  degree  in  June,  1792,  Lord  Holland 
spent  several  years  abroad,  since  his  guardians  wished 
to  avert  his  premature  entrance  into  politics.  He  had 


LORD   HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  19 

already  paid  a  visit  to  Paris  during  the  Long  Vacation  of 
the  previous  year,  where  he  heard  the  luckless  Louis  XVI. 
profess  attachment  to  the  Constitution  "in  a  clear  but 
tremulous  voice  and  with  great  appearance  of  earnest- 
ness," and  dined  frequently  with  Lafayette,  who  appeared 
to  him  full  of  private  affection  and  public  virtue,  but 
"  apt  to  mistake  the  pedantry  of  liberty  for  its  substance." 
The  most  important  of  his  boyish  recollections,  as  pub- 
lished after  his  death  by  the  fourth  Lord  Holland  in  the 
entertaining  volume  entitled  "  Foreign  Reminiscences," 
concerned,  however,  "  Egalite "  Orleans,  whom  he  de- 
scribed as  driven  with  extreme  reluctance  into  demo- 
cratic courses  by  the  animosity  of  the  Court,  and 
"indifferent  alike  to  the  pursuits  of  pleasure  or  vanity, 
ambition  or  revenge,  and  solely  intent  on  enjoying  ease 
and  preserving  existence."  This  was  the  opinion  of 
Talleyrand,  with  whom  Lord  Holland  now  formed  a 
life-long  friendship,  and  who  introduced  him  to  Fouche, 
a  man  "  whose  countenance,  manner,  and  conversation 
exhibited  profligacy  and  ferocity,  energy  and  restless- 
ness." The  tour  was  extended  to  Switzerland,  and  at 
Lausanne  Lord  Holland  met  Lavater,  the  physiognomist, 
whom  he  charitably  and,  probably  with  justice,  set  down 
as  the  sincere  dupe  of  his  own  pretended  science.  He 
spent  two  days  with  Gibbon,  and  came  away  impressed 
by  the  vanity  and  affectations  of  the  historian,  who,  devoid 
of  human  feelings,  was  "  more  like  what  he  admired 
and  produced,  a  large  book,  than  a  living  member  of 
society." 

The  late  summer  and  autumn  of  the  following  year 
were  spent  by  Lord  Holland  in  Denmark  and  Prussia, 
whence  he  returned  with  an  abundant  crop  of  Court 
anecdotage.  But  his  impressions  as  to  the  state  of 


20  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

public  opinion  with  regard  to  the  possibility  and  pro- 
priety of  suppressing  the  French  Revolution  by  foreign 
arms  were  of  more  permanent  value.  The  military  men 
regarded  the  triumph  of  the  Allies  as  inevitable.  But  the 
people  throughout  the  Protestant  countries  of  the  North 
clearly  wished,  though  they  dared  not  hope,  for  success 
to  Revolutionary  France.  Before  he  left  Germany  he 
received  a  letter  from  his  uncle  exultingly  comparing  the 
Duke  of  Brunswick's  retreat  from  the  Ardennes  to 
Saratoga  or  Yorktown — parallels  for  which  it  is  difficult 
to  forgive  Fox.  Reading  between  the  lines,  indeed,  we 
cannot  fail  to  perceive  that  of  the  two  the  nephew  took 
the  saner  view  of  the  progress  of  the  Revolution  ;  he 
was  apprehensive  of  Jacobin  excesses  and  of  the  war 
being  converted  into  one  of  aggression  on  the  part  of 
the  French,  whereas  even  the  September  massacres 
barely  shook  his  uncle's  optimism. 

Court  scandal,  and  very  diverting  it  is,  comes  upper- 
most in  the  "  Foreign  Reminiscences  "  when  the  traveller 
reaches  Spain  and  makes  the  acquaintance  of  that  aston- 
ishing Court,  which  had  as  its  leading  personages  the 
simple  Charles  III.,  his  immoral  Queen,  and  her  lover, 
Manuel  Godoy,  the  Prince  of  the  Peace.  The  sym- 
pathies of  the  writer  are  naturally  with  politicians  of  the 
type  of  the  upright  and  austere  Jovellanos,  but  they  did 
not  blind  him  to  the  considerable  abilities  of  Godoy, 
who  bore  with  philosophy  the  privations  of  his  last 
years,  when  he  lived  on  a  small  pension  from  the  French 
Government.  After  settling  for  some  time  in  Florence, 
where  he  formed  a  poor  opinion  of  our  diplomatic 
representatives  in  Italy,  Lord  Holland  returned  through 
Vienna  to  England  in  the  spring  of  1796.  We  catch 
a  glimpse  of  him  in  a  letter  from  Sir  Morton  Eden  in 


LORD   HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  21 

the  "Auckland  Correspondence"  which  is  reminiscent 
of  his  uncle's  days  as  a  macaroni.  He  was  dressed  in 
the  height  of  the  prevalent  fashion,  "frocks  and  round 
hats,  with  his  hair  cropped  as  if  round  a  bowl  dish." 
He  had,  meantime,  fulfilled  his  destiny  as  a  Fox  by 
eloping  with  Lady  Webster,  born  Vassall,  a  great  Jamaica 
heiress,  and  in  July,  1797,  her  husband  having  obtained 
a  decree  for  a  separation,  the  pair  were  married  at 
Isleworth.  Their  eldest  son,  Charles,  afterwards  well- 
known  in  society  as  General  Fox,  and  to  archaeology 
as  a  collector  of  coins,  was  born  out  of  wedlock. 

The  fortunes  of  the  Whigs  wore  a  dismal  aspect  when 
Lord  Holland  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords.  In 
the  Commons,  Fox,  with  some  fifty  followers,  was  still 
forcing  division  after  division  on  the  conduct  of  the  war 
and  the  subsidising  of  the  German  Powers  against  Revo- 
lutionary France.  But  the  secession  of  the  Duke  of 
Portland,  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  and  the  other  Whig  mag- 
nates, had  exercised  a  disastrous  effect  on  the  party  in 
the  Upper  House.  It  was  reduced  to  a  mere  handful 
of  five  or  six.  Lord  Holland  brought  to  the  discomfited 
band  the  enthusiasm  of  youth,  a  strong  belief  in  Whig 
principles,  and  considerable  debating  powers.  As  might 
be  expected,  he  never  overcame  the  disadvantage  of 
entering  upon  public  life  in  an  assembly  which  had 
reduced  discussion  to  a  formality  and  which  was  decor- 
ously oppressive  in  its  atmosphere.  Brougham  and 
Macaulay  agree  that  in  statement  he  suffered  from  hesi- 
tations due  to  a  rush  of  ideas  and,  as  Fox  warned  him, 
to  an  over-fastidiousness  in  the  formation  of  his  sen- 
tences. His  voice,  too,  like  his  uncle's,  was  devoid  of 
charm.  But  he  shone  in  reply,  for  then  he  could  expose 
the  unsound  points  in  an  opponent's  argument,  and 


22  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

illustrate  their  weakness  from  the  resources  of  a  culti- 
vated mind.  His  contemporaries  were  of  opinion  that 
none  of  his  oratorical  achievements  gave  a  just  measure 
of  his  powers,  and  that,  given  the  requisite  stimulus,  he 
might  at  any  moment  have  electrified  the  house  by  a 
performance  worthy  of  Charles  Fox. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  party  chiefs  attended  by  Lord 
Holland  resolved  upon  the  famous  secession  of  1797. 
The  plan  was  chiefly  encouraged  by  Grey,  always  im- 
pulsive and  querulous  ;  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and  Erskine 
regarded  it  as  a  feasible  experiment.  Fox,  with  his 
thoughts  centred  in  his  home  at  St.  Anne's  Hill,  longed 
for  it  on  personal  grounds,  but  doubted  its  wisdom. 
"  He  acquiesced  in  the  idea,"  says  Lord  Holland  in  his 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party,"  "  more  from  indolence 
than  from  judgment."  The  practical  minds  of  Sheridan 
and  Tierney  refused  to  be  bound  by  an  agreement  which 
Lord  Lansdowne  (formerly  Lord  Shelburne)  censured 
in  a  phrase  of  luminous  felicity  :  "  Is  your  uncle  aware 
of  what  he  is  doing  ?  Secession  means  rebellion,  or  it 
is  nonsense."  The  wisdom  of  the  remark  became  mani- 
fest before  many  weeks  had  passed  by.  For  the  moment 
Pitt  was  disconcerted  by  the  absence  of  effective  criti- 
cism, and  by  taunting  the  absent  and  extolling  the 
present,  tried  to  win  the  wanderers  back.  But  he  soon 
perceived  the  advantage  of  a  free  field  for  his  measures, 
which  embraced  an  enormous  increase  of  assessed  taxa- 
tion, and,  by  and  by,  the  Act  of  Union  with  Ireland. 
Fox  warned  his  friends  from  the  first  that  if  he  once 
took  leave  of  the  House  it  would  be  no  easy  matter  to 
bring  him  back.  He  was  as  good  as  his  word,  since  he 
only  spoke  nineteen  times  between  the  secession  of  1797 
and  his  assumption  of  office  in  1806.  But  the  debates 


LORD   HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  23 

on  the  Assessed  Taxes  Bill  lured  most  of  the  other  Whig 
malingerers  back  to  the  Commons,  and  drew  from 
Lord  Holland  his  maiden  speech  in  Parliament.  It 
was,  he  modestly  wrote  in  his  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig 
Party"— 

"hurried  and  confused  ;  my  delivery  at  times  rapid  and 
unintelligible,  at  others  hesitating  and  ungraceful.  Yet  I 
was  told  that  parts  of  it,  and  yet  more  my  reply,  held  out 
great  promise  of  improvement ;  and  some  of  the  older  peers, 
though  little  disposed  to  encourage  one  of  my  principles 
and  connections,  flattered  me  by  saying  that  my  manner 
reminded  them  of  my  grandfather." 

Posterity  has  little  reason  to  quarrel  with  Fox  for  a 
retirement  dictated,  not  by  affectation,  but  by  a  sincere 
preference  for  lettered  ease.  Lord  Holland  has  described 
how  he  came  up  to  Holland  House  when  the  debate  on 
the  rejection  of  the  peace  overtures  was  imminent,  how 
he  stipulated  for  remaining  only  two  nights,  and  how, 
when  he  heard  that  the  debate  was  postponed  in  conse- 
sequence  of  Pitt's  illness,  he  sat  "  silent  and  overcome, 
as  if  the  intelligence  of  some  great  calamity  had  befallen 
him.  I  saw  tears  steal  down  his  cheeks,  so  vexed  was 
he  at  being  detained  from  his  garden,  his  books,  and  his 
cheerful  life  in  the  country."  Yet  his  speech,  when  it 
came,  was,  in  his  own  words,  "  his  best."  From  St. 
Anne's  Hill  Fox  poured  out  his  thoughts  on  literature 
in  unstudied  letters  to  his  nephew.  He  preferred  the 
classics  to  the  moderns,  and  our  early  writers  to  their 
successors,  though  he  implicitly  yielded  incontestable 
superiority  to  Shakespeare.  Philosophy  did  not  attract 
him,  and  he  valued  history  solely  as  a  record  of  the 
actions  of  great  men  ;  but  all  poetry,  except  that  of 


24  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

Germany,  appealed  to   him.     Thus,   after  extolling  the 
"  Iliad,"  he  writes  : 

"  There  are  parts  of  Virgil  (and  among  those,  too,  imitated 
from  Homer)  which  I  think  fully  equal  to  Homer,  but  then 
he  has  not  in  any  degree  approaching  to  his  master  that 
freedom  of  manner  which  I  prize  so  much  ;  and  Milton,  who 
has  some  passages  as  sublime  as  possible,  is  in  this  respect 
most  deficient — or,  rather,  he  has  no  degree  of  it  whatever. 
Ariosto  has  more  of  it  than  any  other  poet,  even  so  as  to  vie 
in  this  particular  merit  with  Homer  himself,  and  possibly 
it  may  be  that  my  excessive  delight  in  him  is  owing  to  my 
holding  in  higher  estimation  than  others  do  the  merit  of 
freedom  and  rapidity." 

We  find,  rather  to  our  surprise,  that  Fox  was  unac- 
quainted with  Boccaccio's  "  Griselda,"  but  he  was  fully 
aware  of  Chaucer's  indebtedness  to  the  "Decameron," 
though  holding  that  he  had  improved  on  the  original. 
"  What  a  genius  Chaucer  was  1 "  he  adds  in  a  postscript. 
The  following  is  a  suggestive  passage,  dealing  with  some 
of  Chaucer's  successors  : 

u  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  Dryden  has  not  the  exact 
sort  of  playfulness,  or  levity,  or  familiarity  of  manner,  or 
easy  grace  which  I  mean,  and  which  it  is  very  difficult 
rightly  to  define.  Prior  has  more  of  it  than  Dryden,  La 
Fontaine  more  than  Prior,  and  Ariosto  and  Ovid  as  much  as 
possible,  which  in  them  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  I  do  not 
think  it  often  belongs  to  any  great  genius." 

Fox's  criticisms,  it  must  be  confessed,  are  generally 
ab  extra,  and  he  but  rarely  attempts  to  put  his  authors 
in  relation  to  their  time.  Still,  he  was  an  inspiring  pre- 
ceptor, and  to  his  influence  was  principally  due  the  zeal 
of  Holland  House  for  letters  and  erudition. 


LORD   HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  25 

The  resignation  of  Pitt,  in  1801,  failed  at  first  to  drag 
Fox  from  his  seclusion ;  he  was  much  more  interested  in 
Dryden  than  in  Mr.  Addington,  whom  he  accepted  on 
the  principle  quia  impossibile.  But  he  spoke  on  the 
preliminaries  of  peace,  and  after  the  Treaty  of  Amiens 
had  been  signed,  paid  a  short  visit  to  Paris  with  Lord  St. 
John,  Mrs.  Fox,  and  his  secretary,  Mr.  Trotter.  Of  his 
conversation  with  the  First  Consul  we  have  the  record 
preserved  by  the  last  enthusiastic  gentleman.  Napoleon 
paid  a  florid  compliment  to  the  great  statesman  who 
recommended  peace  because  there  was  no  just  object 
of  war,  who  saw  Europe  desolated  to  no  purpose,  and 
who  struggled  for  its  relief.  Fox,  who  hated  laudatory 
addresses,  said  little  or  nothing  by  way  of  reply.  The 
party  were  joined  by  Lord  and  Lady  Holland,  Adair  and 
General  Fitzpatrick,  and  the  uncle  and  nephew  dined 
and  spent  the  evening  at  the  First  Consul's  Court. 
From  his  conversation,  Fox,  always  according  to  the 
faithful  Trotter,  derived  the  impression  that  he  was  a 
young  man  who  was  a  good  deal  intoxicated  by  his 
success  and  surprising  elevation,  and  that  he  was  sincere 
as  to  the  maintenance  of  peace.  Lord  Holland's  recol- 
lections reproduce  rather  his  appearance,  voice,  and 
manner,  and,  appreciative  though  they  are,  virtually 
confirm  Talleyrand's  opinion  that  Napoleon  was  ires 
mal  eleve. 

"The  former  [his  countenance],  though  composed  of 
regular  features,  and  both  penetrating  and  good-humoured, 
was  neither  so  dignified  nor  so  animated  as  I  had  expected  ; 
but  the  latter  [his  voice]  was  sweet,  spirited,  and  persuasive 
in  the  highest  degree,  and  gave  a  favourable  impression  of  his 
disposition  as  well  as  his  understanding.  His  manner  was 
neither  affected  nor  assuming,  but  certainly  wanted  that  ease 


26  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

and  attraction  which  the  earliest  habits  of  good  company  are 
supposed  exclusively  to  confer." 

Lady  Holland  appears  to  have  previously  conceived  an 
admiration  for  Napoleon's  genius,  but  it  was  thenceforth 
that  Holland  House  developed  the  full  measure  of  its 
sentimental  devotion  to  the  Emperor. 

The  Hollands  remained  abroad  until  the  spring  of 
1805,  spending  much  of  their  time  in  Spain  and 
Portugal.  She  much  preferred  continental  modes  of 
living,  while  the  Whig  peer  may  have  felt  that  attendance 
in  the  House  of  Lords  was  a  profitless  occupation. 
Lord  Holland  missed,  therefore,  the  retirement  of 
Addington,  when  the  renewal  of  the  war  had  thoroughly 
advertised  his  incapacity  ;  the  fruitless,  though  by  no 
means  the  first,  efforts  to  effect  a  junction  between  his 
uncle  and  Pitt,  and  the  formation  by  the  latter  of  a 
narrow  Administration  when  the  circumstances  of  the 
time  clamoured  for  a  strong  Government.  To  this 
second  visit,  which  was  supplemented  by  a  third  in 
1808,  with  the  youthful  Lord  John  Russell  as  one  of 
the  party — a  tour  much  interrupted  by  the  progress  of 
the  French  arms — we  owe  more  vivacious  sketches 
of  prominent  Spaniards,  the  best  remembered  of  whom, 
General  Alava,  became  the  intimate  friend  and  guest  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington.  After  he  had  escaped  to 
England  from  the  resentment  of  Ferdinand  VII.,  the 
accomplished  soldier  was  a  great  favourite  with  London 
society,  though  not  with  the  Court.  Lord  Holland 
severely  but  justly  remarks  that  "  George  IV.,  who  wore 
his  crown  in  virtue  of  the  exclusion  of  the  Stuarts, 
affected  not  to  forgive  a  Spaniard  for  concurring,  in  a 
moment  of  national  danger,  in  the  temporary  dethrone- 
ment of  a  king  more  unwarlike  than  James  I.,  more 


LORD   HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  27 

perfidious  than  either  Charles,  and  more  arbitrary  and 
cruel  than  James  II." 

Besides  making  the  acquaintance  of  individuals,  Lord 
Holland  collected  many  valuable  manuscripts  and  printed 
works,  some  of  which  formed  materials  for  his  Lives  of 
Lope  de  Vega  and  Guillen  de  Castro.  The  first  was 
published  anonymously  in  1806,  and  reappeared  with  its 
companion,  under  its  author's  name,  eleven  years  later. 
Taken  in  conjunction  with  his  "  Foreign  Reminiscences," 
"  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party/'  and  "  Further  Memoirs," 
they  fairly  justify  the  praise  lavished  by  Brougham  on 
his  prose.  He  certainly  wielded  an  easy  pen,  whereas 
Charles  Fox,  oppressed  by  his  models,  composed  his 
frigid  "History  of  James  II."  "drop  by  drop,"  as 
Sydney  Smith  put  it.  The  erudition  is  hardly  equal 
to  modern  requirements,  since  Lord  Holland  candidly 
confesses  that  of  Lope  de  Vega's  five  hundred  extant 
comedies  he  had  read  but  fifty.  He  places  the  famous 
dramatist,  however,  in  instructive  relation  with  his  pre- 
decessors and  contemporaries,  notably  with  Cervantes, 
and  shows  how  his  strength  lay  not  in  the  epics  and 
novels  by  which  he  set  store,  but  in  the  plays  he  affected 
to  despise.  Lope,  he  holds,  resembled  Shakespeare  in 
his  plots,  but  was  inferior  iri  all  other  respects  :  "a  rapid 
succession  of  events  and  sudden  changes  in  the  situation 
of  the  personages  are  the  charms  by  which  he  interests 
us  so  forcibly."  The  account  of  the  writings  of  Guillen 
de  Castro,  and  of  the  indebtedness  of  Corneille  to  him 
for  "The  Cid,"  is  an  even  more  satisfactory  piece  of 
criticism.  It  amounts  to  this,  that  the  Frenchman 
greatly  improved  upon  his  original  in  point  of  literary 
judgment,  but  that  in  a  passage  or  two  the  Spaniard 
must  be  accounted  superior. 


28  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

Lord  Holland's  other  contributions  to  literature  are 
not  of  much  moment,  with  the  exception  of  his 
"  Memoirs."  They  include  some  graceful  translations 
of  Calderon  and  Ariosto,  and  various  pamphlets  bearing 
on  politics,  of  which  his  "  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Shuttle- 
worth,"  on  the  Roman  Catholic  question,  appearing  in 
the  critical  year  1827,  promptly  ran  into  three  editions. 
As  an  exercise  of  fancy,  he  addressed  "  A  Dream  " — an 
imaginary  conversation  between  George  III.,  Sir  Thomas 
More,  Bacon,  Sir  William  Temple,  and  other  illustrious 
dead,  on  education — to  Rogers  in  the  form  of  a  letter. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  much  pains  is  taken  in  the  trifle  to 
preserve  character ;  Addison  talks  much  as  Cowley,  and 
Cowley  as  Berkeley.  But  the  "  Dream  "  contains  several 
curious  anticipations  of  modern  educational  develop- 
ments, the  Rhodes  scholarships  among  them,  thus  : 

"  He  (Sir  William  Temple)  talked  of  three  great  universities, 
with  respective  dependencies  of  schools,  military  and  naval 
academies,  museums,  libraries,  galleries,  gardens,  laboratories, 
and  observatories,  to  be  established  in  three  distinct  quarters 
of  the  globe  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Crown  of  Great 
Britain.  One  was  to  be  in  Canada  or  the  West  Indies,  another 
at  Fort  William  in  the  East,  and  the  third  at  Malta,  Gibraltar,  or 
some  possession  in  the  Mediterranean.  They  were  to  be  con- 
nected with  one  another,  as  well  as  with  the  establishments 
of  Marlow  and  Hertford  ;  the  colleges  of  Eton,  Westminster, 
Winchester,  and  Maynooth  ;  and  the  Universities  of  Dublin, 
Edinburgh,  Oxford,  and  Cambridge." 

The  "  establishment  at  Marlow "  was  the  Royal  Mili- 
tary College,  subsequently  removed  to  Sandhurst  ;  that 
at  Hertford  evidently  stands  for  the  East  India  College, 
really  situated  at  Haileybury,  several  miles  away.  The 
disputationists  in  the  "  Dream "  finally  decide  on  a 


LORD   HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  29 

university  at  Malta,  where  modern  Greeks  could  produce 
new  Aristotles  and  Platos,  and  Moors  perfect  themselves 
in  Arabic.  Beneath  this  play  of  fancy  we  seem  to 
perceive  those  cosmopolitan  sentiments  which  were 
popularised  by  the  French  Revolution. 

As  an  editor,  Lord  Holland  gave  to  the  world  Lord 
Waldegrave's  "  Memoirs,"  dealing  chiefly  with  the  con- 
fused period  when  Henry  Fox,  the  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
and  the  elder  Pitt  were  struggling  for  the  mastery,  and 
Horace  Walpole's  "Reign  of  George  II.,"  which  he 
equipped  with  a  workmanlike  preface,  setting  forth  its 
authenticity  and  the  obvious  intention  of  its  writer  that  it 
should  be  published,  and  pointing  out  the  unwarranted 
bitterness  of  Walpole's  strictures  on  individuals.  Dr. 
Smiles,  in  the  entertaining  volume  "  A  Publisher  and 
his  Friends,"  implies  that  Lord  Holland  drove  rather  a 
hard  bargain  with  Murray,  the  publisher.  Byron  was 
of  much  the  same  opinion  : 

"  For  Orford  and  for  Waldegrave 
You  gave  much  more  than  me  you  gave, 
Which  is  not  fairly  to  behave, 
My  Murray  ! " 

But,  even  if  the  books  did  not  prove  profitable  as  specu- 
lations, they  made  valuable  additions  to  the  materials 
for  eighteenth-century  history.  The  most  interesting, 
because  the  most  personal,  of  Lord  Holland's  prefaces, 
however,  is  that  to  Charles  James  Fox's  "  History  of  the 
Early  Part  of  the  Reign  of  James  II."  In  it  he  explains 
how  his  uncle  wavered  between  various  projects,  a 
treatise  on  poetry,  history,  and  oratory  among  them, 
before  he  concentrated  himself  on  the  period  before 


30  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  Revolution  ;  how  he  spent  much  of  his  Paris 
holiday  in  the  Foreign  Office  with  Lord  St.  John, 
Adair  and  Mr.  Trotter,  examining  and  transcribing 
Barillon's  despatches,  and  how  he  wrote  with  painful 
slowness,  excluding  every  word  for  which  he  could  not 
find  authority  in  Dryden,  and  studiously  avoiding  all 
rhetorical  effects.  Lord  Holland  may  be  forgiven  for 
failing  to  point  out  that  so  laboured  a  performance 
must  necessarily  be  unsatisfactory.  Few  literary  con- 
trasts are  more  complete,  indeed,  than  that  between 
the  bald  account  of  the  execution  of  the  Duke  of 
Monmouth,  with  which  Fox's  fragment  closes,  and  the 
treatment  of  that  poignantly  tragic  episode  by  Macaulay. 
Lord  Holland's  literary  reputation  ultimately  depends 
on  his  "  Foreign  Reminiscences,"  "  Memoirs  of  the 
Whig  Party  during  my  Time,"  and  "  Further  Memoirs." 
The  first  and  second  of  these  works  appeared  under 
the  editorship  of  his  son,  the  fourth  and  last  Lord 
Holland ;  the  third  has  recently  been  given  to 
the  world  by  the  present  Earl  of  Ilchester.  Written 
with  easy  correctness,  and  with  a  constant  sense  of 
humour,  they  supply  a  fund  of  information,  political 
and  literary,  from  the  beginning  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution down  to  the  death  of  Queen  Caroline.  Lord 
Holland  can  tell  a  story  with  point,  nor  does  he  mind 
if  its  point  is  a  trifle  broad.  The  "  Foreign  Remini- 
scences "  deal  mainly,  indeed,  with  the  follies  of  Courts, 
varied  by  admirable  portraits  of  Talleyrand,  Calonne, 
and  some  of  their  contemporaries,  and  concluding 
with  facts  about  Napoleon  assiduously  collected  and 
stored  in  a  retentive  memory.  The  "  Memoirs "  and 
"  Further  Memoirs "  are  open  to  the  criticism  that  they 
are  concerned  almost  entirely  with  political  intrigue, 


LORD   HOLLAND'S  YOUTH  31 

and  pay  but  little  attention  to  popular  movements. 
Lord  Holland  appears  to  have  taken  Horace  Walpole 
for  his  model,  and  for  him,  of  course,  the  people  did 
not  exist.  Besides,  in  the  days  before  the  Act  of 
Reform,  the  fate  of  parties  hung  to  a  considerable 
extent  upon  misunderstandings  between  the  King  and 
his  ministers,  or  the  undermining  of  responsible 
advisers  by  henchmen  from  Carlton  House.  Lord 
Holland  cannot  be  blamed,  therefore,  for  concerning 
himself  with  the  accidents  of  politics,  and  it  is  a 
charm  rather  than  a  defect  in  his  manner  that  a  dis- 
cursive, story-telling  style  develops  those  accidents  at 
times  beyond  their  proper  proportions.  Given  an 
impressive  incident,  such  as  the  death  of  Fox,  he 
rises  to  genuine  eloquence.  The  "  Memoirs "  are 
valuable,  besides,  as  reflecting,  though  with  a  miti- 
gating toleration,  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the 
aristocratic  Whigs.  In  them  appears  a  curious  leaning 
towards  Republican  principles,  which,  we  may  be 
sure,  would  never  have  been  translated  into  practice, 
and  a  tendency  to  depreciate  the  actions  of  politicians 
like  the  Duke  of  Wellington  who  had  the  bad  taste 
to  be  Tories.  It  must  be  added  that  Lord  Holland's 
amiability  sometimes  appears  to  lack  depth,  and  that 
an  unexpected  coldness  pervades  his  characters  of 
close  political  associates  like  Windham  or  intimate 
friends  like  Hookham  Frere. 


CHAPTER   III 
LORD   HOLLAND   AS  A  STATESMAN 

The  Talents  Administration— Lord  Holland  becomes  Privy  Seal 
— Fall  of  the  Government — The  Whigs  in  opposition — Speculations 
on  office — Lord  Holland's  "  protests  " — Treason  penalties — Aboli- 
tionism— A  visit  to  Naples — Napoleon's  captivity — Arguments  con 
and  pro — Lady  Holland  and  Napoleon — An  historic  snuff-box. 

LORD  HOLLAND  returned  from  Spain  in  time  to 
witness  the  junction  of  the  Old  Opposition,  led  by 
Fox,  and  the  New,  under  the  conduct  of  Lord 
Grenville,  against  Pitt's  Government.  The  presentation 
of  petitions  from  the  Roman  Catholics,  which  they 
selected  as  the  point  of  their  attack,  resulted  in  animated 
debates  but  disappointing  divisions.  He  took  part  in 
the  discussion  in  the  Lords,  and  discovered  that  want  of 
practice  had  not  impaired  his  speaking  as  much  as  he 
had  apprehended.  But  the  "  Memoirs "  naturally  dwell 
rather  upon  the  two  disasters — the  exposure  of  Dundas's 
irregularities  as  Treasurer  of  the  Navy,  and  the  defeat 
of  the  Allies  at  Austerlitz — which  dragged  Pitt  down  to 
the  grave.  A  lively  account  is  given  of  the  formation  of 
the  Ministry  of  All  the  Talents  under  Lord  Grenville  and 
Fox  ;  the  unfortunate  admission  of  Lord  Sidmouth  and 
his  friends,  with  the  additional  anomaly  of  the  Chief 
Justice,  Lord  Ellenborough,  as  a  member  of  the  Cabinet, 


LORD   HOLLAND 

FROM    THE    PAINTING   BV  JOHN    SIMI'SON    AFTER   CHARLES   ROBERT   LESLIE,  R.A., 
IN   THE   NATIONAL   PORTRAIT   GALLERV 


LORD   HOLLAND  AS  A  STATESMAN  33 

because  Fox  thought  that  "  it  would  stop  all  the  earths," 
and  the  attempt  to  conciliate  Carlton  House  by  the 
bestowal  of  the  management  of  Scotland  on  Lord  Moira. 
Lord  Holland's  own  preference  was  for  diplomatic  em- 
ployment, but  none  happened  to  be  vacant.  He  was 
thus  destined  to  witness  Fox's  gradual  disillusionment  as 
to  the  sincerity  of  the  French  offers  of  peace,  and  the 
rapid  approach  of  his  last  illness.  The  uncle  hoped  that 
the  nephew  would  succeed  him  at  the  Foreign  Office. 
"  But  don't  think  me  selfish,  young  one.  The  Slave 
Trade  and  Peace  are  two  such  glorious  things,  I  can't 
give  them  up,  even  for  you."  That  remark  was  made  in 
a  sanguine  mood ;  with  clearer  insight  Fox  confessed 
that  "  it  is  not  so  much  the  value  of  the  point  in  dispute  " 
— the  future  of  Sicily — "as  the  manner  in  which  the 
French  fly  from  their  word  that  disheartens  me."  The 
negotiations  were  virtually  at  an  end  as  relations  and 
friends  gathered  round  the  bedside  of  the  expiring 
statesman,  and  Miss  Fox,  Lord  Holland,  and  General 
Fitzpatrick  solaced  his  last  hours  by  reading  aloud  to 
him  Virgil,  Dryden,  and  Crabbe. 

The  death  of  Fox  led  to  a  Ministerial  reconstruction, 
in  the  course  of  which  Lord  Holland  entered  the 
Cabinet  as  Privy  Seal.  But  the  Government  only  sur- 
vived the  removal  of  its  most  powerful  member  some 
eight  months.  The  King  hated  an  Administration  in 
which  the  Whigs  formed  the  predominant  element ;  the 
Prince,  fancying  himself  neglected,  developed  Carlton 
House  politics  upon  tortuous  lines  of  his  own  devising. 
The  people  were  alienated  by  the  manifest  incapacity  of 
the  Government  to  carry  on  war,  as  displayed  in  the 
frivolous  expeditions  to  Buenos  Ayres,  Alexandria  and 
the  Dardanelles.  Even  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade, 


34  THE   HOLLAND    HOUSE   CIRCLE 

highly  though  it  must  have  gratified  the  Saints,  failed  to 
touch  the  imagination  of  the  masses,  who  preferred  the 
Radicalism  of  Sir  Francis  Burdett.  It  only  needed  the 
revival  of  the  Catholic  claims  in  a  limited  form  to  give 
the  King  the  opening  for  which  he  was  watching  with 
narrow  intentness,  and  he  forced  Ministers  to  resign  by 
the  unconstitutional  demand  that  they  should  never 
press  on  him  in  future  any  measure  connected  with  the 
question. 

The  Whigs,  with  the  exception  of  those  few  who  took 
office  under  Canning,  were  doomed  to  remain  in  oppo- 
sition until  1830.  Their  greatest  disaster  was  undoubtedly 
Grey's  elevation  to  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  death  of 
his  father  in  the  autumn  of  1807.  Thomas  Creevey's 
opinions  of  "Snoutch  "  (Mr.  Ponsonby)  and  "  Old  Cole  " 
(Mr.  Tierney),  who  successively  undertook  the  thankless 
office  of  leading  the  Opposition  in  the  Commons,  were 
those  of  undisguised  contempt ;  give  him,  frank  partisan 
as  he  was,  the  more  robust  faction  of  Whitbread.  But 
a  candid  consideration  of  the  efforts  of  the  Whigs  to 
return  to  power,  from  the  proposal  of  an  enlarged 
Administration  in  1809  to  the  futile  negotiations  of  Lord 
Moira  in  1812,  makes  it  clear  that  the  tactlessness  of 
their  leaders  in  the  Upper  House,  Grey  and  Grenville, 
protracted  the  misfortunes  of  the  party  rather  than 
slackness  in  the  Commons.  They  lectured  the  Prince 
Regent ;  they  ignored  Sheridan,  though  his  goodwill 
would  have  helped  them  much  ;  they  raised  needless 
difficulties  ;  they  obtruded  their  principles. 

Creevey  furnished  the  low  comedy  of  a  succession  of 
scenes  in  which  the  Regent  was  by  far  the  most  accom- 
plished actor  when  he  looked  down  the  area  of  a  Tory 
Prime  Minister  and  watched  the  preparation  of  a  dinner 


LORD   HOLLAND  AS  A  STATESMAN  35 

by  four  men  cooks  and  twice  as  many  maids,  at  which 
the  perfidious  "Prinny"  was  to  be  present.  His  cri  de 
caeur,  "  By  God,  this  is  too  much  ! "  was  genuine,  we 
may  be  sure,  since  the  Opposition,  in  the  sanguine  way 
that  Oppositions  have,  had  already  distributed  office  in 
anticipation.  Creevey  was  to  have  found  a  place  at  the 
Admiralty  Board  with  Lord  Holland  as  First  Lord. 
Earlier  in  the  Session,  Speaker  Abbot,  afterwards  Lord 
Colchester,  had  predicted  for  Lord  Holland  an  even  more 
important  position ;  the  premiership,  he  thought,  lay 
between  him  and  Lord  Fitzwilliam.  This  curious  specu- 
lation implied,  of  course,  the  passing  over  of  Earl  Grey, 
who  was  presumably  expected  to  take  the  Foreign  Office, 
and  the  formation  of  a  Government  on  a  purely  Whig 
basis,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  Grenvilles. 

The  earlier  part  of  the  Regency  must  be  pronounced 
a  singularly  unattractive  period  of  parliamentary  history. 
The  Liverpool  Administration,  when  deprived  of  the 
services  of  Canning  through  his  quarrel  with  Castlereagh, 
possessed  but  little  merit  beyond  a  steadfast  determina- 
tion to  continue  the  war  in  the  Peninsula.  Its  finance 
was  inefficiently  conducted  by  Vansittart,  and  it  was 
quite  incapable  of  grappling  with  agricultural  depression 
or  working-class  discontent.  The  Opposition  were  in 
no  better  plight ;  in  a  letter  to  Brougham  written  about 
this  time  Lord  Holland  admitted  that  they  were  hope- 
lessly divided.  The  Grey-Grenville  fiascos  had  left 
bitter  memories  behind  them.  Lady  Holland  requested 
Creevey  to  spare  the  Government  with  his  jokes,  and  to 
begin  on  "those  Grenvilles."  Those  were  petticoat 
politics.  Her  husband  was  much  occupied  during  those 
barren  but  momentous  years  in  making  his  chiefs  keep 
step,  and,  out  of  doors,  in  inducing  the  Dissenters  to 


36  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

support  the  movement  for  Catholic  Emancipation.  The 
lot  of  political  peacemakers  is  seldom  blessed  ;  none  the 
less,  public  life  cannot  afford  to  dispense  with  healers  of 
differences  like  Lord  Holland,  Lord  Duncannon,  and 
the  late  Lord  Granville. 

Lord  Holland's  constancy  to  Liberal  opinions  was  the 
more  creditable,  because  that  school  of  thought  had  fallen 
into  general  discredit.  "  It  is  certain,"  wrote  Brougham 
in  his  "Statesmen  of  the  Time  of  George  III.,"  "that 
whensoever  any  occasion  arose  of  peril  to  the  great  cause 
of  toleration,  the  alarmed  eye  instinctively  turned  first  of 
all  to  him  as  the  refuge  of  the  persecuted."  The  eulogy 
may  appear  at  first  sight  overstrained,  but  a  study  of 
Holland's  protests  in  the  House  of  Lords,  as  collected 
and  edited  after  his  death  by  a  barrister  named  Moylan, 
proves  its  substantial  correctness.  "The  Opinions  of 
Lord  Holland,"  as  the  little  volume  is  called,  forms  a 
text-book  of  Whig  domestic  policy.  In  drawing  up  his 
protests  he  took  considerable  pains,  since  Fox  had  taught 
him  to  regard  them  as  excellent  practice  for  seizing  the 
point  of  an  argument.  They  become  genuinely  eloquent 
when  they  touch  upon  the  existence  of  oppression 
sanctioned  by  law.  Thus  the  practice  of  imprisonment 
for  debt  was  denounced  by  him  on  several  grounds, 
notably  because,  the  punishment  being  inflicted  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  creditor,  it  sinned  against  the  principle 
that  "no  man  shall  himself  judge  the  extent  of  the 
injury  he  has  received,  or  shall  himself  measure  the 
degree  of  punishment  to  be  inflicted  on  the  offender." 
Romilly's  Bill  for  removing  the  theft  of  goods  from  a 
shop,  warehouse,  coachhouse,  or  stable  from  the  category 
of  capital  offences  having  been  rejected  in  the  Lords  on 
the  second  reading,  Lord  Holland  entered  a  pertinent 


LORD   HOLLAND  AS  A  STATESMAN  37 

protest :  to  assign  the  same  punishment  for  heinous 
crimes  and  slight  offences,  he  observed,  "tends  to  con- 
found the  notions  of  right  and  wrong,  to  diminish  the 
horrors  atrocious  guilt  ought  always  to  inspire,  and  to 
weaken  the  reverence  in  which  it  is  desirable  that  the 
laws  of  the  country  should  be  held." 

On  his  own  account  Lord  Holland  brought  in  several 
years  afterwards,  that  is,  in  1825,  a  Bill  to  take  away  cor- 
ruption of  blood  from  the  penalties  of  treason.  It  was 
opposed  by  Lord  Eldon,  who  had  previously  helped  him 
to  carry  a  Bill  requiring  the  evidence  of  two  witnesses  to 
an  overt  act,  and  rejected  by  a  majority  of  three.  Yet  a 
humaner  age  will  cordially  concur  with  Lord  Holland's 
sententious  observation  that — 

"  The  unjust  and  inhuman  device  of  punishing  the  innocent 
heirs  of  a  traitor  for  the  treason  of  their  relation  or  ancestor 
has,  in  all  seasons  of  civil  commotion,  been  found  insufficient 
to  deter  men  of  strong  passions,  however  elevated  their 
fortune  or  their  rank,  from  engaging  in  treasonable  designs, 
and  has  an  obvious  tendency  to  shake  the  stability  of  property, 
to  perpetuate  the  remembrance  of  political  feuds,  and  to 
aggravate  in  individuals  and  families,  in  parties  and  sects,  the 
turbulent  vices  of  rapacity  and  revenge." 

As  Brougham  appropriately  noted,  the  West  Indian 
interests  of  Holland  House  never  prevented  its  master 
from  being  a  strenuous  advocate  of  the  abolition  both  of 
the  slave-trade  and  slavery.  He  earnestly  supported  Lord 
Grenville's  motion  for  papers  with  the  view  of  censuring 
Ministers  for  not  having  secured  the  cessation  of  the 
traffic  by  the  Treaty  of  Peace  with  France  of  1813.  His 
zeal  in  the  good  cause  delighted  Wilberforce,  to  whom 
he  wrote,  while  on  a  visit  to  Paris  in  1814,  that  he  was 


38  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

trying  to  make  converts.  Abolitionism  was  unpopular, 
however,  with  the  French  Royalists  because  it  had  been 
advocated  by  the  Jacobins.  "  They  make  no  difference," 
observed  Lord  Holland,  "  between  you  and  me,  or  me 
and  Tom  Paine." 

The  Hollands  extended  this  tour  to  Naples  in  company 
with  Rogers,  and  they  were  joined  by  Dr.  Holland,  the 
physician  and  traveller.  In  a  long  letter  to  Francis 
Horner,  the  young  hope  of  the  Whig  party,  Lord 
Holland  passed  a  penetrating  judgment  on  the  Court 
and  people.  He  wrote  on  March  i,  1815,  just  four 
days  before  Murat,  on  hearing  of  Napoleon's  escape 
from  Elba,  decided,  to  his  own  undoing,  on  throwing 
in  his  lot  with  his  brother-in-law.  Lord  Holland  per- 
ceived that  King  Joachim  cherished  ambitious  designs  ; 
he  had  too  much  of  the  spirit  of  a  military  chief  pour  de 
pas  dire  un  aventurier.  But  he  considered  that  England 
ought  to  support  him  rather  than  countenance  a  Bourbon 
restoration.  Despite  his  good  government,  conscription 
and  the  heavy  taxation  rendered  Murat's  throne,  in  Lord 
Holland's  opinion,  none  too  stable.  In  person  the  King 
was  "  a  fine,  good-humoured  soldier,  too  theatrical  in  his 
dress  and  mode  of  playing  royalty,  but  even  in  his  defi- 
ciencies calculated  to  put  those  with  whom  he  converses 
completely  at  their  ease."  He  was  most  friendly  with 
the  English,  and  lost,  with  great  good  humour,  nine 
games  of  chess  out  of  fourteen  to  Lord  Granville 
Somerset,  and  two  out  of  three  to  Lord  Holland 
himself.  The  Queen  is  described  as  "  pretty,  though  in 
bad  health  ;  her  manners  are  very  agreeable  and  gentle, 
and  she  is  said  to  possess  her  full  share  of  the  abilities 
and  decision  of  character  for  which  her  family  are 
remarkable."  Rogers,  in  his  "  Table-Talk,"  furnishes  a 


LORD   HOLLAND  AS  A  STATESMAN  39 

characteristic  incident.  Lady  Holland  declined  to  go  to 
the  Royal  parties,  until  Murat  gave  a  concert  expressly  in 
her  honour,  when  she  had  the  gratification  of  sitting 
between  the  King  and  Queen  and  putting  to  them  what 
questions  she  pleased.  To  the  poet  Murat  used  to  be 
most  civil.  "  H6  bien,  monsieur,"  he  used  to  call  out, 
rising  in  his  stirrups,  "  ctes-vous  inspire"  aujourd'hui  ¥ " 

Lord  Holland's  devotion  to  those  humanitarian 
principles  which  were  the  Whigs'  chief  virtue  during 
the  long  years  of  Opposition  need  not  be  laboured 
further.  He  shared,  however,  that  party's  tendency  to 
Quixotic  or  obstructive  views  on  the  foreign  relations 
of  the  country.  When  Napoleon  was  finally  consigned 
to  St.  Helena,  Lord  Holland,  with  the  solitary  support 
of  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  recorded  this  protest  against  the 
Bill  introduced  by  the  Colonial  Secretary,  Lord  Bathurst, 
"for  the  more  effectual  detaining  of  Buonaparte  in 
custody." 

"  To  consign  to  distant  exile  and  imprisonment  a  foreign 
and  captive  Chief,  who,  after  the  abdication  of  his  authority, 
relying  on  British  generosity,  had  surrendered  himself  to  us, 
in  preference  to  his  other  enemies,  is  unworthy  the  magna- 
nimity of  a  great  country  ;  and  the  treaties  by  which,  after  his 
captivity,  we  bound  ourselves  to  detain  him  in  custody  at  the 
will  of  the  Sovereigns  to  whom  he  had  never  surrendered 
himself,  appear  to  me  repugnant  to  the  principles  of  equity, 
and  utterly  uncalled  for  by  expediency  or  necessity." 

To  this  pronouncement  a  later  generation  of  Whigs 
declined  to  subscribe.  "We  would  not  have  signed  it," 
wrote  Macaulay  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and  Lord  John 
Russell  took  exception  to  it  in  his  "  Reminiscences." 
The  sentiment  is  honourable  enough,  but  it  inclines  to 


40  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

sentimentalism.  Be  it  admitted  that  the  consignment 
of  Napoleon  to  captivity  might  have  been  accom- 
plished by  any  other  Power  with  better  grace  than  by 
ourselves.  But  did  any  conceivable  alternative  exist  ? 
In  reply  to  Lord  Holland's  private  remonstrances, 
Lord  Liverpool  defended  himself  by  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  knowing  how  to  deal  with  such  a 
prisoner. 

The  case  was  argued  out  at  the  time  between  Francis 
Horner  and  Hallam,  the  former  of  them  evidently 
reflecting  the  sentiments  of  Holland  House.  "We 
have  been  wanting  in  generosity,"  is  the  sum  of  his 
argument.  Hallam  replied  that  in  the  unsettled  state 
of  Europe  Napoleon  could  not  be  left  at  liberty  with- 
out a  prodigious  risk  of  exciting  fresh  disturbances. 
He  continued  : 

"  I  once  wished  that  Buonaparte  should  have  found  a 
tranquil  asylum  in  this  island  ;  but,  when  I  see  the  foolish 
admiration  which  many  persons  entertain  for  that  man,  and 
the  still  more  foolish  association  of  his  name  with  the  love 
of  liberty,  I  cannot  desire  to  see  his  Court,  as  it  were, 
frequented  by  all  the  discontented,  as  well  as  all  the  idle 
and  curious.  Nor  do  I  think  it  would  be  easy  to  obtain  an 
adequate  security  against  his  escape  from  the  country, 
except  by  measures  almost  as  severe  as  those  adopted  at 
St.  Helena,  of  which  I  should  be  sorry  to  see  a  precedent 
established  in  Britain.  The  condition  of  Ireland  affords 
another  argument  against  allowing  him  to  reside  in  this 
country." 

Hallam  exhausts  the  common  sense  of  the  matter, 
apart  from  the  important  question  raised  in  another 
of  Lord  Holland's  protests,  the  restoration  of  the 
Bourbons,  "against  the  principles,"  as  he  put  it  in 


LORD   HOLLAND  AS  A  STATESMAN  41 

the  true  Whig  spirit,  "on  which  the  Revolution  of 
1688  and  the  succession  of  the  House  of  Hanover 
were  founded."  Here,  again,  the  absence  of  an  alter- 
native stands  out  as  an  insuperable  difficulty ;  "  every- 
thing else,"  said  Talleyrand,  "is  an  intrigue."  To 
permit  Napoleon  to  return  under  restrictions,  even 
to  place  his  son,  the  King  of  Rome,  on  the  throne 
with  Marie  Louise  as  Regent,  would  have  been  the 
riskiest  of  expedients.  Europe  panted  for  peace,  and 
for  peace  a  Bourbon  restoration  was  the  only 
substantial  guarantee,  although  in  the  event  neither 
Louis  XVIII.  nor  Charles  X.  proved  the  most  com- 
petent of  sovereigns. 

The  admiration  of  Holland  House  for  the  fallen 
Emperor  came  from  a  feminine  rather  than  a  mascu- 
line source.  Lord  Holland's  analysis  of  Napoleon's 
character  in  the  "  Foreign  Reminiscences "  does  not 
overstep  the  bounds  of  discrimination  ;  he  extols  the 
vast  administrative  talents,  but  admits  the  lawlessness 
of  such  crimes  as  the  execution  of  the  Due  d'Enghien. 
Lady  Holland  set  no  limits  to  her  hero-worship.  In 
July,  1815,  just  after  Napoleon's  fate  had  been  decided, 
Lady  Granville  found  her  at  Holland  House  seated  on 
the  grass  with  a  plate  of  baba,  "  very  cross  and  absurd 
about  Buonaparte,  *  poor  dear  man,'  as  she  calls  him." 
Still,  her  attentions  assumed  a  harmless  form,  however 
liable  they  may  have  been  to  misconstruction  by  con- 
temporary gossip.  During  his  captivity  on  Elba  she 
supplied  him  with  newspapers  under  the  sanction  of 
his  gaolers ;  after  he  had  reached  St.  Helena  she 
forwarded  books  and  delicacies  to  him  at  short  inter- 
vals through  the  Colonial  Office.  The  "pruneaux  de 
Madame  Holland  "  were  nearly  the  last  article  of  food 


42  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

he  ever  asked  for.  She  is  not  to  be  blamed  because 
Napoleon  founded  illusory  hopes  on  her  kindness, 
deluding  himself  with  the  idea  that  Lord  Holland 
might  become  Prime  Minister,  and  that  then  his  own 
liberation  would  follow.  Her  correspondence  with  Sir 
Hudson  Lowe  shows  that  she  took  care  to  prevent 
anything  of  a  dubious  nature  slipping  into  the 
packages  addressed  to  the  illustrious  captive.  The 
gifts  must  have  gone  some  way  towards  mitigating 
the  severity  of  an  imprisonment  which  was  the  more 
deplorable  because  it  was  dictated,  not  by  deliberate 
ill-will,  but  by  conscientious  pedantry.  The  presump- 
tion must  be  that  Napoleon  would  have  submitted  with 
no  good  grace  to  restrictions,  however  lightly  main- 
tained. But  the  evidence  collected  by  Lord  Rosebery 
in  "The  Last  Phase  "  proves  conclusively  that  Sir  Hudson 
Lowe  behaved  throughout  as  a  suspicious  martinet,  and 
degraded  his  guardianship  into  an  unworthy  espionage. 
Lord  Holland  drew  attention  to  his  rigour  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  by  private  representations  to 
the  Colonial  Secretary,  Lord  Bathurst,  endeavoured  to 
secure  sufficient  attendance  for  the  captive,  but  in 

vain. 

^ 

When  Napoleon  died  the  gratitude  of  those  who 
still  clung  to  his  cause  found  expression  in  an  anony- 
mous note  in  pencil  left  on  Lady  Holland,  who  was 
in  Paris,  apprising  her  of  the  fact  several  hours  before 
it  was  generally  known.  From  St.  Helena  there  arrived 
a  snuff-box,  in  which  was  a  piece  of  paper  with  the 
words,  "  L'Empereur  Napoleon  a  Lady  Holland, 
t6moignage  de  satisfaction  et  d'estime."  It  had  origin- 
ally been  presented  to  him  by  Pope  Pius  VI.  at 
Tolentino  in  February,  1797,  and  she  left  it  in  turn 


NAPOLEON'S   SNUFF-BOX 


LORD   HOLLAND  AS  A  STATESMAN  43 

to  the  British  Museum.  The  box  was  delivered  in 
great  form  at  Holland  House  by  Counts  Bertrand 
and  Montholon,  who  had  arrayed  themselves  in  the 
Imperial  uniform.  Lord  Holland  censured  the  dis- 
play as  an  unworthy  manner  of  honouring  a  great 
man's  memory,  and  the  present  they  bore  appears  to 
have  created  some  dissension  among  his  friends.  Tom 
Moore  approved,  and  turned  some  easy  verses  in  honour 
of  the  occasion.  Upon  Lord  Carlisle  it  acted  as  a  poetic 
irritant. 

"  Lady,  reject  the  gift,  'tis  tinged  with  gore," 

he  exclaimed,  and  much  besides.  The  effusion  appeared 
in  the  Times,  and  Byron  in  exile,  mindful  of  old  sores, 
jotted  down  for  the  benefit  of  the  receptive  Medwin 
the  parody  : 

"  Lady,  accept  the  box  the  hero  wore 

In  spite  of  all  this  elegiac  stuff  : 
Let  not  seven  stanzas  written  by  a  bore 
Prevent  your  ladyship  from  taking  snuff." 

Lord  Holland's  comment  was  : 

"  For  this  her  snuff-box  to  resign, 

A  pleasant  thought  enough  ; 
Alas  !  my  lord,  for  verse  like  thine 
Who'd  give  a  pinch  of  snuff  ?  " 


CHAPTER   IV 
UNDER  GEORGE   IV.   AND  WILLIAM   IV. 

Queen  Caroline — An  unflattering  portrait — Creevey  on  the  situa- 
tion— Holland  House  and  the  Queen — Collapse  of  the  Liverpool 
Ministry — Canning's  Administration — A  possible  Foreign  Secretary 
— Navarino  and  its  consequences — Chancellor  of  the  Duchy — Lord 
Holland  and  Reform — A  Whig  Nestor — Peel's  "  Hundred  Days  " — 
The  second  Melbourne  Ministry — The  Syrian  crisis — Lord  Holland's 
death — His  political  character — Whiggism  and  Holland  House. 

TO  the  captivity  of  Napoleon  there  succeeded,  in 
1820,  as  the  popular  topic  of  the  day,  the  case  of 
Queen  Caroline,  and  it  placed  the  leaders  of  the 
Whig  party  in  a  position  of  much  difficulty.  Though  the 
Regent,  who  had  become  George  IV.,  had  entirely  trans- 
ferred his  confidence  to  the  Tories,  he  still  kept  up  social 
relations  with  the  Opposition,  and  frequently  came  to 
dinners  and  receptions  at  Holland  House  and  elsewhere. 
Besides,  they  had  been  intimately  concerned  with  the 
"  delicate  investigation  "  held  during  the  Talents  Ministry, 
which,  while  stopping  short  of  finding  the  Princess  of 
Wales,  as  she  then  was,  a  guilty  woman,  recommended 
that  the  Lord  Chancellor  should  advise  her  to  be  more 
circumspect  in  her  behaviour.  Lord  Holland  records,  with 
a  shrug  of  amusement,  in  his  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig 
Party,"  that  in  those  days  persons  of  rank  plumed  them- 


UNDER  GEORGE    IV.  AND  WILLIAM   IV.       45 

selves  on  declining  to  meet  the  Prince  at  Holland  House, 
observing  that  he  was  no  fit  company  for  a  gentleman. 
His  own  sympathies,  however,  seem  to  have  been  rather 
with  the  husband  than  the  wife,  of  whom  he  set  down  a 
character  more  faithful  than  flattering  : 

"  She  was,  at  best,  a  strange  woman,  and  a  very  sorry  and 
uninteresting  heroine.  She  had,  they  say,  some  talent,  some 
pleasantry,  some  good-humour,  and  great  spirit  and  courage. 
But  she  was  utterly  destitute  of  all  female  delicacy,  and 
exhibited  in  the  whole  course  of  the  transactions  relating  to 
herself  very  little  feeling  for  anybody,  and  very  little  regard 
for  honour  or  truth,  or  even  for  the  interests  of  those  who 
were  devoted  to  her,  whether  the  people  in  the  aggregate  or 
the  individuals  who  enthusiastically  espoused  her  cause.  She 
avowed  her  dislike  of  many  ;  she  scarcely  concealed  her 
contempt  for  all.  In  short,  to  speak  plainly,  if  not  mad,  she 
was  a  very  worthless  woman." 

Those  who  have  studied  the  inner  history  of  her  case, 
notably  as  it  stands  revealed  in  Sir  J.  Arnould's  "  Life  of 
Lord  Denman,"  will  be  slow  to  quarrel  with  this  estimate, 
severe  though  it  is. 

Holland  House  had  reasons  for  holding  aloof  from 
the  Queen's  cause  which  were  quite  unintelligible  to  a 
pronounced  partisan  like  Creevey.  They  feared  for  the 
State,  whereas  the  "  Mountain,"  or  extreme  Whigs, 
cared  little  what  became  of  the  Crown,  provided  that 
the  Government  were  in  the  net  result  discredited. 
Creevey  looked  on  the  trial  exactly  as  if  it  had  been  a 
rat-hunt  with  "  Bruffam "  as  the  most  pertinacious 
terrier.  The  Whig  leaders  tried  to  take  away  the  vin- 
dictive appearance  of  the  proceedings  by  dividing  against 
Lord  Liverpool's  Bill  for  depriving  the  Queen  of  her 


46  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Royal  titles  and  privileges  and  dissolving  the  marriage, 
while  Lord  Holland  protested,  on  his  own  account, 
against  the  Ministerial  plan  of  proceeding  by  way  of 
committee  and  supported  a  regular  legal  procedure. 
Such  moderation  was  far  from  suiting  Creevey  ;  "  as  for 
the  wretched  dirt  and  meanness  of  Holland  House,"  he 
wrote  with  his  accustomed  candour,  "  it  makes  me  per- 
fectly sick."  He  even  carried  his  displeasure  to  the 
length  of  leaving  Lady  Holland's  invitations  unanswered, 
though  he  soon  condescended  to  be  flattered  into  a  good 
temper.  But  then  Creevey  can  pair  off  with  Croker,  on 
the  Tory  side,  as  political  faction  incarnate.  When  the 
interests  at  stake  are  considered,  the  responsible  Whigs 
must  be  admitted  to  have  extricated  themselves  with  skill 
from  the  dilemma  of  abetting  the  King's  vengeance,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  lending  fuel  to  popular  passions  on 
the  other.  If  some  of  them  made  a  mistake,  it  was 
in  calling  on  Queen  Caroline  when  the  tide  began  to 
turn  and  the  Government  were  evidently  being  driven  to 
abandon  their  Bill. 

Holland  House  took  no  part,  however,  in  these 
eleventh-hour  conversions.  Lady  Granville  describes 
Lady  Holland  as  "  tapping  her  largest,  most  Italian  fan 
with  energy  on  the  outside  of  the  box  "  when  the  King  at 
last  ventured  to  appear  at  the  play.  Lord  Holland  illus- 
trated the  trial  by  various  epigrams  and  puns  which  he 
tossed  across  the  table  to  Lord  Eldon,  and  these  he 
seems  to  have  repeated  at  home.  One  given  by  Lady 
Granville  is  of  early  eighteenth-century  flavour.  He  also 
told  an  excellent  story.  The  man  employed  in  looking 
after  the  Italian  witnesses,  who  was  a  bit  of  a  dandy, 
happened  to  settle  his  cravat  by  running  his  fingers 
between  it  and  his  throat.  The  gesture,  they  thought, 


UNDER  GEORGE   IV.   AND  WILLIAM    IV.       47 

could  have  but  one  meaning.  Whereupon  "  they  set  up 
a  horrid  yell  and  plumped  on  their  knees,  crying 
"Misericordia." 

Queen  Caroline  dead  was  speedily  forgotten,  as  Lord 
Eldon  predicted  she  would  be,  and  thanks  to  the  brilliant 
foreign  policy  of  Canning  and  the  wise  administration  of 
Robinson,  afterwards  Lord  Goderich,  at  the  Exchequer, 
and  of  Huskisson  at  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  Government 
soon  recovered  strength.  In  a  familiar  passage,  Disraeli 
satirised  the  Liverpool  Cabinet  as  one  of  mediocrities 
with  an  arch-mediocrity  at  its  head,  but  the  first  part  of 
the  statement  cannot  be  correctly  applied  to  its  later 
period.  On  the  contrary,  by  means  of  the  convenient 
device  of  making  Catholic  Emancipation  an  "open 
question  "  Lord  Liverpool  enlisted  the  best  talents  of  the 
Tory  party  in  a  Ministry  of  compromise.  The  Prime 
Minister  may  not  have  been  exactly  a  genius,  but  he  was, 
as  Twiss  well  calls  him,  the  keystone  of  the  arch,  and 
kept  the  concern  together.  When  he  was  struck  down 
by  paralysis  in  February,  1827,  no  one  was  found  capable 
of  supplying  his  place.  Canning  undertook  the  task, 
and  all  the  Ministers  who  had  resisted  the  Catholic 
claims  promptly  resigned.  He  then  attempted  a  coali- 
tion with  the  Whigs,  but  though  Lord  Lansdowne  and 
Lord  Carlisle  entered  the  Cabinet,  and  Tierney  became 
Judge-Advocate-General  and  William  Lamb  Irish  Secre- 
tary, the  magnates  held  icily  aloof.  His  Ministry,  in 
fact,  as  the  "  Croker  Papers  "  show,  was  formed  rather 
on  the  principle  of  freeing  the  Crown  from  the  rival 
aristocracies  than  on  that  of  Catholic  Emancipation. 
Pourparlers  were  apparently  instituted  with  Holland 
House.  "  What  shall  we  do,"  was  Canning's  humorous 
comment,  "  with  Lady  Holland  in  the  Cabinet  ? "  A 


48  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

corresponding  distrust  is  to  be  discovered  in  the  lady's 
shrewd  summary  of  the  situation  in  a  letter  to  Lord 
John  Russell. 

"  This  confounded  division  of  the  country  into  Protestant 
and  Catholic,"  she  wrote,  "makes  the  King  as  powerful  as 
ever  Henry  VIII.  was.  He  is  at  present  as  anti-Catholic  as 
his  father,  and  has  assured  the  Archbishop  that  they  may 
depend  upon  him  as  a  Defender  of  the  Church.  The  other 
sentiment  that  influences  him  is  resentment  against  the 
seceders.  .  .  Canning  flatters  this  passion  by  obsequiousness 
to  his  will  ;  and,  as  I  understand  the  matter,  will  dare  to  do 
nothing  until  time  and  his  own  dexterity  overcome  the 
scruples  of  H.M.'s  conscience.  This  is  a  pretty  state  of 
things  for  Whigs  to  support,  and  nothing  but  fear  of  the 
seceders  coming  back  to  office  and  forming  a  thoroughly 
ultra-Tory  and  anti-Catholic  Government  could  induce  them 
to  a  coalition  so  utterly  repugnant  to  all  their  principles  and 
feelings." 

Canning's  ultimate  policy  must  remain  a  matter  of 
conjecture.  Ill-health,  the  result  of  a  cold  caught  at 
the  Duke  of  York's  funeral,  and  anxiety  due  to  the 
instability  of  his  position  made  an  end  of  the  Premier, 
after  an  acrimonious  session,  during  which  he  was  so 
irritated  by  the  constant  attacks  of  Lord  Grey  that 
he  actually  contemplated  taking  a  peerage,  so  as  to 
be  able  to  meet  them  face  to  face. 

Lord  Goderich,  the  "transient  and  embarrassed 
phantom"  of  "Coningsby,"  succeeded  Canning,  and 
Lord  Lansdowne  tried  to  strengthen  the  Whig  element 
by  bringing  Lord  Holland  into  the  Cabinet  as  Foreign 
Secretary.  Lady  Granville,  an  ardent  Canningite, 
cordially  hoped  that  the  project  would  succeed.  But 
the  possible  accession  of  so  consistent  a  Whig  alarmed 


UNDER  GEORGE   IV.  AND  WILLIAM   IV.       49 

the  Tory  wing  of  the  coalition,  most  reactionary  of 
whom  was  Herries,  the  new  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  he  was  the  King's  nominee.  The  intrigue  and 
counter-intrigue  which  raged  round  the  unfortunate 
Prime  Minister  are  developed  at  considerable  length 
in  the  "Memoir"  of  Herries  by  his  son.  They  virtually 
resolved  themselves  into  a  tussle  whether  Whig  or  Tory 
principles  should  prevail  in  a  mixed  Cabinet.  "  Lord 
Holland,"  Herries  gloomily  reminded  Lord  Bexley 
(formerly  Mr.  Vansittart),  "took  an  opportunity,  even 
so  late  as  the  month  of  May  last,  of  solemnly  declaring 
that  on  whatever  side  of  the  House  he  might  sit,  he 
would  never  fail  to  vote  for  Parliamentary  reform,  nor 
refuse  to  move,  whenever  called  upon  to  do  so,  the 
repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts."  Give  him 
the  peaceful  spirit  of  compromise  which  prevailed  under 
Lord  Liverpool's  late  Administration.  At  last  the  King, 
become  aware  of  the  dissensions  which  were  rending  the 
Ministry,  cut  the  knot  by  advising  Lord  Goderich  to 
resign  and  charging  the  Duke  of  Wellington  with  the 
formation  of  a  fresh  Cabinet.  "  Lady  Holland,"  wrote 
the  wit,  Joseph  Jekyll,  to  his  sister-in-law,  Lady  Gertrude 
Sloane-Stanley — 

"  is  the  only  dissatisfied  Minister  out  of  office.  She  counted 
upon  sailing  down  daily  with  her  long-tailed  blacks  and 
ancient  crane-necked  chariot,  to  sit  with  Holland  at  the 
Secretary's  office,  to  administer  the  affairs  of  Europe,  and 
make  Sydney  Smith  a  bishop.  As  for  him,  he  never  cared 
twopence  about  the  whole  thing,  and  the  delightful  fellow 
was  very  wise  in  so  treating  it." 

Jekyll    read    Lord    Holland's    mind    correctly.     In    a 
letter  to  Plunket,  the  Irish  orator,  written  so  far  back 
E 


So  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

as  the  previous  August,  he  had  expressed  his  fears  that 
the  Ministry  could  not  endure,  if  Herries  was  introduced 
into  it  as  a  disturbing  element.  If  Herries  was  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  not  one-fifth  or  one-tenth  of 
the  Whigs  would  vote  for  the  Government  on  questions 
of  finance. 

The  Ultras,  having  discarded  the  Canningites,  pro- 
ceeded to  surrender  to  O'Connell,  and  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation was  carried  by  the  party  which  had  uniformly 
resisted  the  principle.  The  Whigs,  thus  "dished" — 
not  for  the  last  time — directed  their  criticism  chiefly 
to  foreign  affairs,  now  complicated  by  the  battle  of 
Navarino.  "We  have  somehow  or  other,"  wrote  Lord 
Holland  to  Lord  John  Russell,  "exasperated  the  two 
greatest  powers  on  the  Continent,  viz.,  the  Cabinet  of 
St.  Petersburg  and  the  public  opinion  of  France ;  and 
we  have  done  so  without  serving  ourselves  or  our  pre- 
tended allies,  and  without  ingratiating  ourselves  either  with 
those  we  wished  well  to,  or  those  who  really  benefited  by 
the  transactions.  Neither  the  Greeks  nor  the  Turks  have 
to  thank  us."  He  made  several  incisive  speeches  against 
the  Porte,  advocating  what  was  termed  at  a  subsequent 
Eastern  crisis  a  "  bag  and  baggage "  policy,  and  his 
friends  expected  that  the  rising  tide  of  Liberalism  would 
carry  him  into  the  Foreign  Office. 

But,  when  Lord  Grey  came  to  take  his  advice  on  the 
various  claims  for  office,  the  ex-Canningite,  Lord  Palmer- 
ston,  was  given  the  appointment,  and  Lord  Holland 
became  instead  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster. 
Probably  he  did  not  regret  the  loss  of  the  more  import- 
ant office,  for  he  had  long  been  a  martyr  to  gout.  With 
the  Prime  Minister  in  the  Upper  House,  he  played  a 
secondary  part  in  the  debates  on  Parliamentary  Reform. 


UNDER  GEORGE   IV.  AND  WILLIAM   IV.       51 

But  he  kept  on  excellent  terms  with  King  William  after 
the  Royal  anxieties  as  to  possible  Ministerial  encroach- 
ments on  the  privileges  of  the  Duchy  had  been  over- 
come. In  the  Cabinet  he  counted  for  much,  thanks  to 
his  rectitude  of  character  and  intimate  knowledge  of 
Whig  traditions.  His  French  predilections  caused  him 
to  be  sometimes  at  issue  with  Lord  Palmerston,  who 
came  to  cross  purposes  with  that  Power  over  the 
creation  of  Belgium,  but,  as  he  philosophically  re- 
marked, he  would  rather  have  twenty  protocols  than 
one  bulletin.  When  the  Reform  crisis  reached  its 
height,  gout  kept  him  away  from  the  Cabinet  meetings 
at  which  the  proposals  of  the  "Waverers,"  Lord  Har- 
rowby  and  Lord  Wharncliffe,  were  discussed.  But  he 
stood  up  stoutly  for  an  immediate  creation  of  peers, 
much  to  the  disgust  of  Charles  Greville,  who  set  down 
in  his  journal  several  indignant  entries  against  the  stiff- 
neckedness  of  Holland  House.  The  diarist  had  ap- 
pointed himself  director-general  to  the  Waverers,  and 
failed  to  perceive  that  it  was  necessary  to  hold  some  kind 
of  a  rod  in  terrorem  over  the  Upper  House. 

Lord  Holland's  position  as  a  Whig  Nestor  became 
more  assured  as  time  went  on.  He  kept  the  younger 
Ministers  in  order  when  they  were  disposed  to  raise 
difficulties,  notably  when  in  1832  they  wished  the 
economies  derived  from  the  suppression  of  ten  Irish 
bishoprics  to  be  diverted  to  the  general  purposes  of 
education.  A  letter,  written  at  the  instance  of  Earl 
Grey,  in  which  he  dissuaded  Lord  John  Russell  from 
resigning  on  the  point  is  a  model  of  commonsense 
applied  to  the  quieting  of  an  over-tender  spirit.  "The 
question  you  have  to  decide  on  conscience,"  he  pointed 
out,  "is  not  whether  your  plan  or  Stanley's  is  the  right 


52  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

one,  but  whether  Stanley's  plan,  or  your  resignation,  with 
its  consequences,  is  preferable."  Unfortunately  Lord 
John  could  not  keep  his  opinions  to  himself,  and  speedily 
justified  Lady  Holland's  shrewd  prophecy,  "Those  young 
men  are  breaking  up  the  Government."  Two  years  later 
he  repeated  in  the  House  his  advocacy  of  the  secularisa- 
tion of  the  Irish  ecclesiastical  revenues,  and  Stanley 
scribbled  his  historic  note  to  Sir  James  Graham,  "John 
Russell  has  upset  the  coach." 

Lord  Holland  continued  to  hold  the  Chancellorship  of 
the  Duchy  of  Lancaster  after  Lord  Melbourne  had  re- 
placed Earl  Grey  as  Prime  Minister  until  William  IV. 
abruptly   brought  the  Government  to   an   end,   in   the 
autumn  of  1834,  by  dismissing  it  and  sending  for  Sir 
Robert   Peel.    Thus  abruptly  relegated  to   Opposition, 
the  Whigs  had  to  think  out  a  new  line  of  policy.     Lord 
Melbourne,  afraid  of  mob  violence,  was  half  inclined  to 
let   matters  be.     Lord   Holland's   Liberalism,   however, 
was  of  stouter  make,  and  he  was  more  closely  in  touch 
with  the  various  sections  of  the  party.    They  were  all  for 
reprisals ;   thus,  in  the  course  of  a  long  letter  on  the 
situation,  he  quoted  Alderman  Combe,  who  said  that  the 
Opposition  wanted  a  focus,  and  "  I  in  a  saucy  joke  pre- 
tended he  thought  that  word  Latin  for  Fox,  but  what  the 
man  meant  to  say  was  correct."     He  thought  Lord  John 
Russell,  much  though  he  liked  him,  too  cold  for  a  leader, 
and  urged  that  the  defect  should  be  made  good  by  meet- 
ings or  consultations.     An  attempt  should  be  made  to 
form  a  coalition  with  Stanley  and  his  friends,  who  had 
broken  away  from  the  Whigs,  and  that  vast  instrument 
of  mischief  and  annoyance,  O'Connell,  might  be  induced 
to  accept  the  Rolls  or  the  Bench.    As  for  general  prin- 
ciples, he  thought  "  necessity,  honour,  and  even  reason, 


UNDER  GEORGE   IV.   AND  WILLIAM   IV.       53 

apart  from  passion,  must  make  you  try  to  do  what  you 
can  to  turn  out  a  Tory  Ministry,  and  to  reinstate  one  in 
character,  composition,  and  spirit  like  that  over  which 
Grey  and  you  presided."  Another  letter  in  the  same 
strain  was  addressed  to  Lord  Melbourne  early  in 
February  ;  the  Opposition  were  eager  for  battle,  victory, 
and  triumph,  and  the  Fabian  system  would  not  serve. 
The  acrimony  of  the  debates  during  Peel's  "  Hundred 
Days  "  of  office  certainly  proved  him  to  have  accurately 
gauged  the  feelings  of  the  party. 

The  Whigs  returned  to  power  in  April,  1834,  and  Lord 
Holland  took  up  his  old  appointment  again.  He  joined 
his  colleagues  in  pressing  Lord  Grey  to  become  Secre- 
tary for  Foreign  Affairs,  but  the  ex-Premier  declined,  and 
Lord  Palmerston  secured  the  seals  by  declaring  that  if  he 
were  not  continued  he  would  sooner  stand  outside  the 
Administration  altogether.  The  Government  was  never 
strong,  though  the  Lichfield  House  compact  had  dis- 
armed the  hostility  of  O'Connell.  But  Brougham's  bitter 
resentment  at  being  excluded  from  the  Cabinet  found 
vent  in  unscrupulous  attacks  on  Lord  Durham's  mission 
to  Canada,  while  the  Lords  freely  mutilated  such  measures 
as  were  obnoxious  to  them.  During  the  last  years  of  his 
life,  Lord  Holland's  chief  efforts  were  directed  towards 
keeping  the  party  together ;  more  concert  and  consulta- 
tion between  the  Government  and  its  supporters,  he 
wrote  in  1839,  must  be  without  delay  re-established, 
organised,  and  understood.  He  laboured  hard  to  bring 
back  Lord  Althorp,  who  had  become  Lord  Spencer,  into 
politics,  urging  that  his  mere  presence  would  keep  Lord 
Brougham  in  order. 

During  the  last  months  of  his  lifetime  Lord  Holland's 
feelings   were    deeply    stirred,   when    Lord    Palmerston 


54  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

developed  the  clever,  but  hazardous,  policy  of  sup- 
pressing the  ambitions  of  Mehemet  Ali,  the  Viceroy 
of  Egypt.  Directly  the  subject  of  intervention  was 
broached,  the  French  Government  hung  back  and  made 
all  sorts  of  difficulties.  Palmerston  then  resolved  on 
proceeding  without  it,  and  on  July  15,  1840,  concluded 
the  Quadrilateral  Treaty  for  the  protection  of  the  Porte 
between  Austria,  England,  Prussia,  and  Russia,  on  the 
one  side,  and  Turkey  on  the  other.  Lord  Holland,  true 
to  the  Whig  traditions,  clung  to  the  French  alliance,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  Lord  John  Russell  and  Lord 
Clarendon  came  over  to  his  side.  Resignations  were 
imminent  during  the  autumn,  and  it  required  all  Lord 
Melbourne's  tact  to  keep  the  Cabinet  together.  "  Indi- 
vidual members  of  the  Cabinet  ought  not,"  wrote  Lord 
Palmerston  to  him,  "as  Lord  Holland  does  every  day  of 
the  week,  to  speak  openly  to  all  who  come  near  them 
about  the  policy  and  measures  which  the  Cabinet  of 
which  they  are  members  is  imbarked  in,  just  as  a 
member  of  Opposition  would  speak  of  the  policy  of  an 
Administration  which  he  was  labouring  to  turn  out." 
Lord  Melbourne  himself  admitted  that  the  talk  at  Hol- 
land House  was  irremediable  ;  "  they  cannot  help  it,  and 
they  are  not  themselves  aware  how  much  they  talk." 

But  though  the  French  leanings  of  Lord  Holland  may 
have  been  too  strongly  displayed,  considering  that  Guizot, 
then  French  Ambassador,  was  his  constant  guest,  and 
that  Charles  Greville  was  continually  agog  for  news,  his 
representations  to  Lord  Melbourne  were  sound.  If  over- 
tures were  to  be  made  to  France,  they  should  be  con- 
veyed to  Paris  speedily,  and  the  Porte  must  be  dissuaded 
from  insisting  on  the  deposition  of  the  Pasha.  But 
the  prompt  success  of  British  naval  measures  against 


UNDER  GEORGE   IV.  AND  WILLIAM   IV.       55 

Mehemet  AH  soon  solved  the  crisis,  and  with  the  resig- 
nation of  M.  Thiers,  the  bellicose  French  Premier,  all 
danger  of  a  breach  with  France  was  at  an  end.  Before 
that  happy  result  was  attained,  however,  Lord  Holland 
died  after  a  few  hours'  illness,  on  October  22,  1840,  and 
it  is  conceivable  that  political  anxieties  cut  short  his  days. 
Just  before  he  expired,  he  said  to  the  page,  "  Edgar,  these 
Syrian  affairs  will  be  too  much  for  me.  Mehemet  AH 
will  kill  me."  The  real  charge  against  Palmerston's 
policy  was,  of  course,  that  he  wished  not  so  much  to 
ruin  the  Pasha  of  Egypt  and  to  preserve  the  integrity  of 
Turkey  as  to  humble  France.  He  undoubtedly  isolated 
and  so  helped  to  undermine  the  Orleanist  monarchy,  and 
Lord  Holland  was  right  in  contending  that  the  disadvan- 
tages of  such  a  policy  outweighed  its  benefits. 

The  attachment  of  the  latter  to  the  old  school  of 
thought,  both  in  domestic  and  foreign  affairs,  was 
expressed  in  the  lines  found  on  his  dressing-table  after 
his  death  : 

u  Nephew  of  Fox,  and  friend  of  Grey — 

Enough  my  meed  of  fame 
If  those  who  deign'd  to  observe  me  say 
I  injured  neither  name." 

This  self-appreciation  defines  Lord  Holland's  place  in 
the  politics  of  his  time  at  once  modestly  and  correctly. 
Circumstance  and  inclination  made  of  him  a  follower 
rather  than  a  leader.  He  entered  public  life  as  the  pupil 
of  Fox:  he  continued  in  it  as  the  second-in-command 
to  Lord  Grey  and  Lord  Melbourne.  Such  ambition  as 
he  possessed  was  mainly  the  creation  of  his  wife  ;  for  his 
own  part  he  was  content  to  support  Whig  principles  with 


56  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

undeviating  consistency  in  office  and  opposition.  He 
was  the  colleague  to  whom  perplexed  chiefs  invariably 
turned  for  advice,  with  the  knowledge  that  it  would 
represent  orthodox  doctrine  and  that  its  motives  would 
be  absolutely  disinterested.  With  talents  of  a  solid  rather 
than  of  a  showy  order,  he  counted  for  much  more  in 
momentous  decisions  than  the  public  of  the  day  was 
aware.  What  Dundas  had  been  to  Pitt,  what  Graham 
was  to  be  to  Peel,  such  was  Lord  Holland  to  the  states- 
men under  whom  he  loyally  served.  As  an  intelligence 
officer  he  was  without  a  rival,  thanks  to  his  wide  social 
relations.  In  the  "tens  "  he  could  gauge  the  inclinations 
of  Carlton  House;  in  the  "thirties"  he  could  forestall 
the  vagaries  of  Brougham.  With  much  of  his  uncle's 
inclination  for  political  tutelage,  it  interested  him  to  form 
the  minds  of  Horner  and  Lord  John  Russell. 

Holland  House  was  thus  for  years  a  political  council- 
chamber  and  meeting-place  where  the  few  matured  plans 
and  the  many  made  acquaintances.  The  value  of  such 
a  centre  to  a  party  under  exclusively  aristocratic  leader- 
ship was  almost  incalculable  ;  but  for  it,  means  of  com- 
munication between  the  rank  and  file  and  the  Whig 
hierarchy  would  have  been  non-existent.  Lord  Grey 
was  a  recluse  by  nature,  and  both  he  and  Lord  Melbourne 
had  to  contend  with  the  difficulty  of  directing  a  party 
with  a  democratic  element  of  rapidly  increasing  import- 
ance from  the  distant  regions  of  the  Upper  House. 
Their  colleague,  though  essentially  an  aristocrat,  had 
acquired  from  travel  and  many  friendships  a  larger 
catholicity  of  taste,  so  that,  though  by  no  means  devoid 
of  originality  of  intellect,  he  became  a  repertory,  as  it 
were,  of  Liberal  opinions.  He  shared  the  strength  and 
the  weakness  of  the  school  which  had  grown  up  under 


UNDER  GEORGE   IV.  AND  WILLIAM   IV.      57 

the  shadow  of  the  French  Revolution.  On  questions  of 
foreign  policy  he  was  prone  to  regard  any  movement  as 
justifiable  because  it  was  insurrectionary,  and  to  construe 
exercises  of  authority  into  acts  of  oppression.  But  his 
views  on  constitutional  matters  were  such  as  have  gained 
general  acceptance  to-day,  though  Tories  of  the  Eldonian 
type  regard  them  as  identical  with  the  worst  excesses  of 
Jacobinism.  Religious  disabilities,  restrictions  on  free 
speech  and  a  free  press  and  taxes  on  articles  of  consump- 
tion found  in  him  an  unflinching  opponent.  He  was,  in 
Macaulay's  suggestive  phrase,  a  noble  who  in  every 
crisis  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  Commons,  a  planter  who 
made  manful  war  on  the  slave  trade,  a  landowner  whose 
whole  heart  was  in  the  struggle  against  the  Corn  Laws. 


CHAPTER    V 
HOST    AND    HOSTESS 

Lord  Holland  at  home — As  a  conversationalist — A  man  of  many 
friendships  —  Lady  Holland's  autocracy  —  Sir  Henry  Holland's 
character  of  her — Historical  retorts — Exercises  of  authority — The 
dinner-hour — A  crowded  table — Good  cheer — Lady  Holland  in 
society — On  her  travels — Lady  Granville's  satire — Lady  Holland's 
correspondence — Byron's  memoirs — "  Glenarvon  " — Calantha  and 
Barbary  House  —  Lady  Holland's  death  —  Guizot's  character  — 
Servants  and  flowers. 

LORD  HOLLAND,  though  a  more  consistent 
politician  than  his  uncle,  regarded  public  life,  it 
may  be  suspected,  as  a  secondary  pursuit.  Affairs 
of  State  came  to  him  as  part  of  his  birthright,  and  he 
carried  out  his  duties  conscientiously  rather  than  with 
enthusiasm.  Long  years  spent  in  Opposition  blunted, 
in  the  end,  an  ambition  which  was  less  innate  than 
inspired  by  those  about  him — by  Fox  and  by  his  wife. 
His  real  interests  lay  elsewhere,  in  travel,  reading,  and 
above  all  in  entertainment  and  the  pleasures  that  enter- 
tainment supplies.  He  was  not  much  of  a  club  man, 
and  went  but  rarely  to  Brooks's,  though  he  was  a  fairly 
constant  attendant  both  at  the  Literary  Club,  founded 
by  Dr.  Johnson,  and  the  King  of  Clubs,  of  which 
Mackintosh,  Bobus  Smith  and  Romilly  were  the  leading 

58 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  59 

spirits.  Lord  Holland,  who  was  totally  devoid  of 
affectation,  fulfilled  the  ideal  of  a  perfect  host.  It  was 
among  the  least  of  his  virtues  that  he  kept  an  excellent 
table — "  They  live  remarkably  well "  was  the  decision  of 
Lord  Minto — and  of  their  intimates  Luttrell,  for  one,  was 
a  confirmed  epicure.  Lord  Holland  possessed  the  far 
more  essential  qualities  of  a  frank  politeness  and  winning 
kindness  which  immediately  set  even  the  most  timid  of 
guests  at  their  ease.  Out  of  his  own  recollections 
Macaulay  drew  a  lifelike  picture  of  the  venerable  and 
benignant  countenance  and  the  cordial  voice  of  him  who 
bade  them  welcome.  It  at  once  relieved  of  all  em- 
barrassment the  youngest  and  most  timid  writer  or  artist 
who  found  himself  for  the  first  time  among  Ambassadors 
and  Earls. 

Mere  amiability  can  never  win  undisputed  social 
leadership,  even  when,  as  in  Lord  Holland's  case,  there 
are  added  to  it  the  claims  of  long  suffering  uncomplain- 
ingly endured.  When  in  his  best  health  he  could  only 
limp  a  hundred  yards  in  a  day  ;  he  passed  some  weeks  of 
every  year  in  extreme  pain.  His  most  vigorous  form 
of  exercise  consisted  in  sitting  about  the  grounds  on  an 
old  pony.  In  addition  to  a  perfect  temper,  he  possessed 
fine  conversational  qualities.  Moore  considered  him 
equal  to  any  talker  of  his  time.  He  welcomed  debate ;  he 
was,  Macaulay  tells  us,  most  courteously  and  pleasantly 
disputatious,  always  beginning  an  argument  by  drawing 
down  his  shaggy  eyebrows,  making  a  face  extremely  like 
his  uncle,  and  wagging  his  head.  In  other  words,  Lord 
Holland  was  well  qualified  to  start  a  subject,  and  to 
keep  it  up,  so  long  as  it  served  its  turn,  with  a  constant 
supply  of  apt  observation  and  anecdote.  He  was,  in  fact, 
better  fitted  for  conducting  the  give  and  take  of 


60  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

conversation  than  any  member  of  his  circle,  of  whom 
Mackintosh  for  one,  and  Macaulay  for  another,  tended  to 
monologue,  while  Luttrell  and  Sydney  Smith  illustrated 
by  turns  of  fancy  rather  than  originated.  A  well-stocked 
political  memory  supplied  him  with  endless  stories,  and 
he  told  them  with  a  mimicry  as  exquisite  as  the  Regent's. 
He  could  reproduce  to  the  life  the  staccato  accent  of 
George  Selwyn  and  the  broad  Doric  of  Lauderdale. 
His  learning,  though  probably  not  very  deep,  was  varied  ; 
he  not  only  owned  but  studied  the  contents  of  a  library 
furnished  with  the  most  important  historical  works  on 
Italy,  France  and  Portugal,  with  the  classics,  and  political 
tracts  and  pamphlets. 

His  intellect  had  its  limitations,  and  they  corresponded 
to  the  gaps  in  the  mental  equipment  of  Fox.  "  Painting," 
said  Rogers,  "gives  him  no  pleasure,  and  music  absolute 
pain."  Pictures  and  busts  he  appears  to  have  valued 
chiefly  as  records  of  his  friends,  and  to  that  end  he 
patronised  the  leading  artists  and  sculptors  of  the  day. 
On  the  whole,  however,  he  contended  on  equal  terms 
with  those  whose  attainments  in  one  direction  or  another 
were  much  superior  to  his  own,  thanks  to  his  savoir  faire 
and  receptive  curiosity.  Though  he  chiefly  cultivated 
men's  society,  Lord  Holland  was  most  popular  with  the 
ladies  :  "  an  angel,"  "  a  great  grig  and  a  great  love,"  are 
the  endearments  bestowed  on  him  by  Lady  Granville  in 
her  letters  to  her  sister,  Lady  Carlisle.  He  delighted  in 
schoolboys,  and  Mr.  George  Russell  has  related  how 
pleased  he  was  with  the  premature  wisdom  of  a  product 
of  Westminster.  The  youth,  invited  to  spend  a  whole 
holiday  at  Holland  House,  was  told  that  he  might  have 
what  he  liked  for  dinner.  Wise  beyond  his  years,  he 
chose  duck  and  green  peas,  with  an  apricot  tart  to  follow. 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  61 

"  My  boy,"  said  Lord  Holland,  "  if  in  all  the  important 
questions  of  your  life  you  decide  as  wisely  as  you  have 
decided  now,  you  will  be  a  great  and  good  man."  Yet 
beneath  the  charming  manners  lay  a  philosophically 
detached  temperament,  compatible  rather  with  many 
friendships  than  with  a  few  deep  affections.  It  was  not 
without  reason  that  Brougham  wrote  :  "  He  surveyed 
mankind  with  the  eye  of  a  naturalist  rather  than  a 
brother."  His  portraits  confirm  the  statement  that  he 
came  to  look  much  older  than  his  real  age,  thereby 
gaining  himself  the  title  of  venerable  by  the  time  that 
he  had  reached  fifty-five. 

Lady  Holland,  though  not  without  good  qualities, 
inevitably  provoked  the  critical  faculties.  Her  imperious- 
ness,  not  to  say  rudeness,  gave  birth  to  innumerable 
anecdotes,  and  even  if  many  of  them  may  have  been 
improved  in  the  telling,  they  convey  the  impression  of 
a  formidable  character.  She  tyrannised  over  all  who 
came  in  contact  with  her,  including  her  husband,  though 
it  was  all,  no  doubt,  in  the  way  of  kindness.  Lord 
Holland,  on  one  occasion,  was  not  permitted  to  dine  in 
a  white  waistcoat,  which  loomed  large  upon  his  portly 
figure,  suggesting,  as  Luttrell  whispered  in  an  aside,  the 
image  of  a  turbot  standing  on  its  tail.  His  wife  declared 
that  she  would  not  sit  down  unless  he  changed  it,  and 
he  was  obliged  to  comply.  Again,  he  was  duly  relieved 
of  his  crutches  when  they  had  ceased  to  be  a  necessity 
and  had  become  a  habit.  "  Put  away  your  nasty  crutches, 
Lord  Holland ;  you  look  as  if  you  were  in  prison." 
"  Oh,  dear  woman,  pray  let  me  have  them  ;  I  like  to  have 
them  near  me."  "  Impossible.  Mary,  take  away  your 
papa's  crutches."  Lady  Granville  witnessed  the  scene, 
which  was  acted  for  the  benefit  of  an  audience  of  eight, 


62  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

including  the  Dutch  Ambassador,  M.  Falck,  and  his 
attache^  the  Prince  de  Chimay.  As  extreme  measures 
Lady  Holland  would  abruptly  order  the  servants  to 
take  away  her  husband's  plate,  and  even  to  wheel  him 
off  to  bed  when  he  was  in  the  middle  of  a  story ;  acts 
of  autocracy  which  he  bore  with  good-humoured 
philosophy. 

Fearless  and  ready,  Lady  Holland  brought  what 
Hayward  calls  the  police  of  the  dinner-table  to  a  con- 
dition of  the  utmost  efficiency.  "  None  but  a  master- 
hand,"  wrote  a  discriminating  judge,  "  could  have 
accomplished  the  result  of  so  skilfully  commingling 
English  and  Foreign  Ministers  and  diplomatists,  men 
of  learning  and  of  science,  historians,  poets,  artists  and 
wits."  The  author  of  this  encomium  was  Sir  Henry 
Holland,  no  relation,  but  the  most  sought-after  physician 
of  his  time  and  the  father  of  the  present  Lord  Knutsford. 
He  added  very  happily  that  she  was — 

"  a  remarkable  woman  in  every  way,  well  remembered  by  all 
who  knew  her — difficult  to  describe  to  those  who  did  not. 
Supreme  in  her  own  mansion  and  family,  she  exercised  a 
singular  and  seemingly  capricious  tyranny  even  over  guests 
of  the  highest  rank  and  position.  Capricious  it  seemed,  but 
there  was  in  reality  intention  in  all  she  did ;  and  this  intention 
was  the  maintenance  of  power,  which  she  gained  and 
strenuously  used,  though  not  without  discretion  in  fixing 
its  limits.  No  one  knew  better  when  to  change  her  mood 
and  to  soothe  by  kind  and  flattering  words  the  provocation 
she  had  just  given,  and  was  very  apt  to  give.  In  this  latter 
case,  indeed,  she  was  aided  by  a  native  generosity  of  mind 
which  never  failed  to  show  itself  in  kindness  where  kindness 
was  wanted.  In  my  long  and  intimate  knowledge  of  Lady 
Holland,  I  never  knew  her  desert  an  old  friend,  whatever  his 
condition  might  be.  .  .  .  Her  management  of  conversation 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  63 

at  the  dinner-table — sometimes  arbitrary  and  in  rude  arrest 
of  others,  sometimes  courteously  inviting  the  subject — 
furnished  a  study  in  itself.  Every  guest  felt  her  presence 
and  generally  more  or  less  succumbed  to  it." 


This  corrective  to  the  ordinary  conception  of  Lady 
Holland  as  a  person  of  merely  purposeless  rudeness  is 
evidently  truthful.  She  would  never  have  exercised 
her  social  autocracy  for  forty  years  had  it  not  been 
instinctively  felt  that  there  was  method  and  reason  in 
her  castigations.  They  were  undeniably  administered 
without  fear  or  favour,  and  neither  the  highest  in  the 
land  nor  the  most  confirmed  habitues  of  Holland  House 
escaped.  Some  of  her  retorts  are  historical.  For 
instance,  speaking  of  "  Rejected  Addresses,"  Monk  Lewis 
remarked  to  her  :  "  Many  of  them  are  very  fair,  but 
mine  is  not  at  all  liked ;  they  have  made  me  write 
burlesque,  which  I  never  do."  "  You  don't  know  your 
own  talent,"  was  the  encouraging  reply.  Then  there 
was  the  descent  on  Rogers  :  "  Your  poetry  is  bad 
enough,  so  pray  be  sparing  of  your  prose."  Even  more 
characteristic  was  the  comforting  assurance  to  Moore, 
"This  will  be  a  dull  book  of  yours,  this  'Sheridan/  I 
fear,"  a  prediction  which,  it  must  be  confessed,  carried 
with  it  the  additional  sting  of  exactitude.  Much  depends, 
of  course,  upon  the  time  and  place  of  the  making  of 
these  amenities.  They  need  not  necessarily  have  been 
hurled  across  the  dinner-table,  or  uttered  in  full  conclave. 
Moore,  most  genial  of  beings,  was  far  too  much  amused 
by  her  sallies  at  his  expense  to  bear  malice.  Lord 
Holland's  geniality  could  be  trusted,  too,  to  turn  aside 
the  biting  edge  of  her  comments.  His  warm  praise  of 
"  Lalla  Rookh "  must  have  alleviated  her  equivocal 


64  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

compliment  to  the  effect  that,  in  spite  of  her  objection 
to  Eastern  things,  she  must,  some  time  or  another,  read  it 
herself. 

Lady  Holland's  autocracy  becomes  the  more  excusable 
when  we  remember  that  the  foibles  both  of  wit  and 
authorship  were  represented  at  her  table.  The  greater 
lights  expected  to  rule  not  only  the  day  but  the  night 
as  well.  A  dominant  individuality  and  an  occasional 
display  of  the  whip  were  needed  to  preserve  the 
amenities.  Lady  Holland  intervened  with  the  calm 
assurance  of  an  accepted  dictator,  and,  if  her  manner 
was  sometimes  insolent,  she  always  respected  those  who 
stood  their  ground.  At  the  fitting  moment  there  came 
the  tap  of  the  fan  on  the  table,  and,  "Now,  Macaulay, 
we  have  had  enough  of  this ;  give  us  something  else." 
Such  exercises  of  authority  could  be  overdone,  and  tiffs 
between  Lady  Holland  and  her  intimates  were  not 
unfrequent.  Visitors  who  entered  Holland  House  for 
the  first  time  surveyed  the  scene  with  open-eyed 
astonishment.  Macaulay,  when  new  to  the  surround- 
ings, described  in  his  letters  how  guests  were  ordered 
about  as  if  they  were  servants,  without  any  prefatory 
form  of  request.  It  was  all  rather  absurd,  but  it  was 
all  good  fun  except  for  the  victim  of  the  moment.  A 
tenable  explanation  of  this  brusqueness,  partly  natural 
and  partly,  no  doubt,  acquired,  is  that  it  served  as  an 
offensive-defensive  cloak  to  a  past  which  was  never 
wholly  forgotten  either  by  great  ladies  like  Lady  Gran- 
ville,  or  members  of  the  strict  professional  classes  like 
Denman,  who,  when  they  came  to  Holland  House,  left 
their  wives  behind  them.1 

1  Sydney  Smith  wrote  to  Lord  Denman  in  1841  :  "  Lady  Holland 
dines  with  us  on  the  lyth.  Does  Lady  Denman  know  Lady 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  65 

The  dinner-hour  was  the  rallying-point  of  the  Holland 
House  circle.  It  was  fixed  in  later  years  at  five  o'clock, 
pour  getter  tout  le  monde,  according  to  Talleyrand.  This 
arrangement  appears  to  have  been  made  in  the  autumn 
of  1832,  when  Greville,  too,  strongly  objected  to  it. 
"  Lady  Holland  is  unwell,"  he  wrote  in  his  journal  on 
November  2oth,  "  fancies  she  must  dine  at  five  o'clock, 
and  exerts  all  her  power  over  society  by  making  every- 
body go  there  at  that  hour,  though  nothing  can  be  more 
inconvenient  than  thus  shortening  the  day,  and  nothing 
more  tiresome  than  thus  lengthening  the  evening."  But 
the  diarist  was  out  of  humour  with  his  hostess,  and  on 
the  eve  of  a  quarrel  with  her  which  he  kept  up  for  two 
years.  Deductions  must  in  all  fairness  be  made  therefore 
from  his  sardonic  account  of  "  this  strange  house,  which 
presents  an  odd  mixture  of  luxury  and  constraint,  of 
enjoyments,  physical  and  intellectual,  with  an  alloy  of 
small  desagrements."  He  admitted,  indeed,  almost  in  the 
next  sentence,  that  whenever,  by  the  death  of  host  or 
hostess,  it  came  to  an  end,  a  vacuum  would  be  made 
in  society  which  nothing  would  supply.  As  for  the 
constraints  and  desagrements,  they  seem  to  have  con- 
sisted, for  one  thing,  in  the  necessity  of  a  formal 
invitation.  Rogers  used  to  tell  how,  as  he  was  coming 
away  one  day  from  a  call  at  Holland  House,  Lord 
Holland  met  him,  and  said,  "  Well,  do  you  return  to 
dinner?"  The  answer  r- was,  "No,  I  have  not  been 
invited,"  and  the  question  was  settled.  Rogers  hand- 
somely added  that  he  thought  Lady  Holland  was  right 

Holland,  and,  if  not,  will  that  deprive  us  of  the  pleasure  of  Lady 
Denman's    company  ?    Lady   Holland  sinned  early  in  life,  with 
Methuselah  and  Enoch,  but  still  she  is  out  of  the  pale  of  the  regular 
ladies,  and  the  case  ought  to  have  been  put." 
F 


66  THE  HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

in  keeping  the  composition  of  her  dinner-parties  in  her 
own  hands,  because  Lord  Holland  was  so  good-natured 
hat  he  would  ask  any  one  whom  he  happened  to  meet 
in  the  course  of  the  day. 

Despite  this  regulation,  her  table  was  notoriously 
overcrowded.  We  find  Lady  Grey  complaining  to 
Creevey  of  having  to  dine  sixteen  at  a  table  for  nine, 
and  Greville  grumbling  because,  two  more  people 
arriving  than  there  was  room  for,  namely,  Lord  Mel- 
bourne and  Tom  Buncombe,  Lady  Holland  had  the 
pleasure  "  of  a  couple  of  general  squeezes  and  of  seeing 
our  arms  prettily  pinioned."  "  Lord  Holland  sits  at 
table,"  he  continued,  "  but  does  not  dine.  He  proposed 
to  retire  (not  from  the  room)  but  was  not  allowed,  for 
that  would  have  given  us  all  space  and  ease."  Her 
proceedings  at  such  crises  were  apt  to  be  summary. 
"  Luttrell,"  she  cried  one  day,  "  make  room."  "  It  will 
have  to  be  made,"  was  the  retort,  "for  it  does  not 
exist."  Moore  records  how  an  unfortunate  Mr.  Gore 
was  abruptly  ordered  to  vacate  his  chair  for  some  more 
favoured  guest.  Lord  Melbourne  once  rose  in  his 
wrath,  after  she  had  fidgeted  him  by  making  him  change 
when  he  was  seated  to  his  liking,  and  walked  off  to  his 
house  with,  "  I'll  be  damned  if  I  dine  with  you  at  all." 
But  here  again  Rogers  is  the  apologist  with  the  remark, 
made  to  Moore,  that  the  close  packing  made  her  dinners 
agreeable,  because,  inconvenient  though  it  was,  a  feeling 
of  good-fellowship  was  the  result.  The  same  sort  of 
enjoyment  was  supplied,  in  fact,  as  attends  the  skirmish- 
ing and  scramble  of  a  picnic. 

Lady  Holland  brought  to  the  furnishing  of  her  table 
the  talents  of  a  commissariat  officer.  She  levied  contri- 
butions of  fish  and  game  from  the  owners  of  salmon 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  67 

rivers  and  well-stocked  preserves.  The  present  of  a 
haunch  of  venison  was  a  sure  way  to  her  good  graces  ; 
and  Hayward  tells  how  Sydney  Smith  made  up  one  of 
their  occasional  squabbles  by  the  offering  of  a  sucking 
pig.  Her  foreign  guests  were  expected  to  supply  the 
delicacies  of  their  respective  countries.  Some  Dutch 
herrings  were  once  recommended  by  her  for  the  odd 
reason  that  they  had  arrived  in  an  Ambassador's  bag. 
M.  Van  der  Weyer,  the  representative  of  the  newly 
constituted  Court  of  Brussels,  imperilled  his  diplomatic 
reputation  in  the  eyes  of  his  serious  fellow-countrymen 
by  his  zeal  in  procuring  for  her  some  moulon  des 
Ardennes.  Half  a  sheep  was  left  at  the  Brussels  Foreign 
Office,  marked  "  tres  presse  "  ;  and  the  clerks,  mistaking 
it  for  a  bundle  of  despatches,  forwarded  it  by  special 
messenger.  Gifted  with  a  robust  appetite,  she  was  quite 
free  from  any  squeamish  affectation  of  disliking  to  discuss 
food  and  its  preparation.  On  the  contrary,  she  engaged 
Motteux,  an  epicure  alleged  to  dispose  of  sixteen  entrees 
at  a  meal,  in  a  hot  discussion  on  the  ingredients  of 
cock-a-leekie  soup,  the  point  in  debate  being  whether 
prunes  were  an  orthodox  addition  to  it  or  not.! 

Supreme  in  her  own  home,  Lady  Holland  expected, 
and  generally  contrived,  to  obtain  unquestioned  defer- 
ence when  she  went  into  society,  which,  previously  to 
her  husband's  death,  was  but  rarely.  In  her  later  years 
she  usurped  the  privileges  of  Royalty,  and  required  to  be 
informed  beforehand  of  the  company  she  was  to  meet. 
On  her  arrival  she  altered  the  places  so  as  to  give  herself 
the  most  entertaining  neighbours  available.  She  paraded 
her  opinions  without  the  smallest  reserve ;  and  in 
Macaulay's  Life  is  to  be  discovered  a  capital  description 
of  a  dinner  at  Rogers's,  where  she  became  so  "out- 


68  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

rageous  "  that  the  party  combined  to  suppress  her.  She 
received  the  correction  in  good  part,  no  doubt.  With 
her  own  sex,  however,  she  was  hardly  a  favourite,  more 
especially  when  she  took  upon  herself  to  keep  its  younger 
members  in  subjection.  Mrs.  Norton,  being  gifted  with 
a  sense  of  humour,  merely  laughed  when  Lady  Holland 
abruptly  removed  some  roses  from  her  head,  considerably 
disarranging  her  hair  in  the  process,  with  the  remark  that 
they  did  not  suit  her  style.  Though  the  process  was 
summary,  the  result,  as  its  victim  admitted,  was  an 
improvement.  But  Fanny  Kemble,  when  a  bouncing 
and  high-spirited  girl,  bitterly  resented  her  dictation, 
and  in  the  "  Records  of  a  Later  Life  "  reproduced  her 
mannerisms  in  passages  written  with  gall  rather  than  ink. 
They  first  met  at  Rogers's,  when  she  drank  out  of 
Sydney  Smith's  glass,  and  otherwise  behaved  like  a  spoilt 
beauty  of  eighteen.  Some  years  afterwards  they  dined 
together  at  the  same  table.  Lady  Holland  dropped  her 
handkerchief,  and  when  Adelaide  Kemble,  who  had 
joined  the  party,  picked  it  up,  the  only  thanks  she  received 
was  :  "Ah,  I  thought  you  would  do  it."  After  that  we 
are  not  surprised  to  learn  that,  when  Lady  Holland  had 
become  a  widow,  Lady  Morley  and  other  social  leaders 
only  tolerated  her  for  the  sake  of  Lord  Holland's 
memory.  From  Greville  and  Sir  Henry  Holland  we 
gather,  however,  that,  after  Lord  Holland's  death,  far 
from  being,  as  Fanny  Kemble  asserted,  "the  most 
miserable  woman  in  England  "  and  "  left  utterly  alone," 
she  made  her  dinners  at  South  Street  as  popular  as  those 
at  Kensington  had  been,  and  that,  down  to  her  last  illness, 
she  gathered  her  old  friends  around  her,  and  even  ex- 
tended her  acquaintances.  There  remains  the  abundantly 
confirmed  detail  of  behaviour  that  Lady  Holland's  im- 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  69 

pedimenta  served,  much  as  his  handkerchief  did  to 
Napoleon,  as  a  test  of  authority.  Count  d'Orsay,  so  the 
story  goes,  emancipated  himself  from  her  by  a  joke. 
After  he  had  picked  up  her  fan  several  times,  when 
sitting  next  her  at  dinner,  he  suggested  that  he  should 
spend  the  rest  of  his  time  on  the  floor,  so  as  to  be 
thoroughly  prepared  for  each  crisis. 

On  her  journeys  to  Ampthill,  Brighton,  and  the  houses 
of  her  friends,  Lady  Holland,  before  the  invention  of 
railways,  affected  the  state  of  the  eighteenth-century 
grands  seigneurs.  In  December,  1815,  she  arrived  at 
Woburn  with  a  train  of  sixteen  people,  imposing  thereby 
a  severe  strain  even  upon  ducal  hospitality.  She  also 
insisted  that  her  nerves  would  not  permit  her  to  travel 
faster  than  a  few  miles  an  hour,  a  fancy  which  protracted 
her  expeditions  abroad  into  the  most  deliberate  of  pil- 
grimages. She  made  the  coachman  put  on  the  drag 
while  driving  on  the  Paris  boulevards.  When  Sir  Henry 
Holland  went  with  the  Hollands,  General  Fox  and  Lord 
John  Russell  to  Paestum  from  Naples,  the  trip  took  from 
four  to  five  days.  After  railways  came  in  she  exerted 
the  powers  of  her  will  to  discomfit  the  dangerous  in- 
vention. On  returning  from  Chippenham  by  the  Great 
Western  Railway  after  a  visit  to  Bowood,  she  compelled 
Brunei  to  limit  the  speed  of  the  train  to  less  than  twenty 
miles  an  hour,  much  to  the  indignation  of  the  other 
passengers. 

In  foreign  capitals  Lady  Holland  exacted  the  same 
degree  of  homage  as  in  London,  and  society  submitted  in 
sheer  astonishment.  Lady  Granville's  descriptions  of  her 
in  Paris  are  so  cleverly  done,  that  they  would  be  spoilt 
by  any  attempt  at  paraphrase.  The  first  relates  to  the 
year  1825  : 


70  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

"  The  Hollands  have  a  good  apartment  and  an  excellent 
cook.  She  is  very  well,  and  to  me  all  smiles,  but  to  her 
alentours  rather  more  in  the  termagant  line  than  common. 
To  the  awestruck  world  who  frequent  her  house  (the  most 
strict,  undivorced  and  ultra-duchesses  now  go  there)  she 
appears  encompassed  by  a  solemnity  and  state  of  fan  and 
elbow-chair  and  shaded  light  which  makes  them  suppose 
themselves  in  the  presence  of  Maria  Theresa  at  least." 

Thirteen  years  later  occurred  an  even  more  characteristic 
scene  : 


"  Madame  de  Lieven  and  she  are  great  friends.  '  Ma  chere, 
j'etais  chez  elle.  II  y  avait  Mme.  Durazzo,  Mole,  Humboldt. 
On  annonce  Pasquier.  Elle  a  Pair  tout  charme,  tout  flatte. 
Elle  me  dit  :  u  Restez,  je  vous  supplie  ;  causez  avec  le  Chan- 
celier."  Je  resiste  ;  elle  m'implore  de  ne  pas  1'abandonner. 
Je  cede.  Pas  plutot  assise  avec  tout  cet  entourage  qui  nous 
regarde,  qu'elle  laisse  tomber  son  sac.  Elle  me  tape  sur 
Pepaule  :  "  Pick  it  up,  my  dear  ;  pick  it  up  " — et  moi,  tout 
etonnee  en  bonne  bete,  me  plongeant  sur  le  tapis  pour 
ramasser  ses  chiffons.'  Is  not  this  a  true  and  incomparable 
Holly-ism,  taking  out  of  Lieven's  mouth  the  taste  of  the  little 
flutter  at  the  visits  and  the  besoin  of  her  support,  by  treating 
her  like  Antonio,  and  showing  off,  what  I  believe  never  was 
seen  before,  Mme.  de  Lieven  as  a  humble  companion  ? " 

Traits  more  distinctly  feminine  were  a  fear  of  thunder 
and  lightning,  expressed  by  closing  the  shutters,  drawing 
the  blinds,  and  ordering  candles  in  broad  daylight ;  and 
a  terror  of  the  cholera,  a  sentiment  that  stood,  no  doubt, 
in  need  of  considerably  less  excuse. 

A  person  of  Lady  Holland's  unruly  tongue  inevitably 
appears  in  a  juster  light  in  correspondence  than  in  con- 
versation. The  specimens  of  her  letters  which  have 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  71 

been  published  show  her  to  have  been  gifted  with  a 
happy  faculty  for  hitting  the  taste  of  those  she  addressed. 
Whatever  her  opinion  of  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  as  Napoleon's 
gaoler,  may  have  been,  she  remembered  that,  dwelling  on  a 
lonely  island,  he  must  be  thirsting  for  news.  Lady  Holland 
gave  him,  therefore,  a  racy  account  of  the  state  of  public 
feeling  created  by  the  trial  of  Queen  Caroline.  She  con- 
sidered it  by  no  means  impossible  that  a  junction  of  mob 
and  soldiery  would  be  formed  in  her  Majesty's  favour, 
adding  that  "it  is  a  singular  fact  that  these  persons 
cannot  be  made  to  understand  the  difference  of  Queen 
and  Queen  Consort,  and  fancy  it  is  no  departure  from 
their  allegiance  to  prefer  Queen  to  King,  pretending  their 
rights  are  the  same."  Just  as  characteristic  are  her  letters 
to  Mrs.  Creevey ;  they  range  over  every  conceivable  topic, 
including  the  disbanding  of  his  followers  by  Canning  in 
1813,  when  Ward  (Lord  Dudley)  remarked  that  it  was 
hard  to  serve  a  year  without  wages,  but  he  hoped  he 
should  get  a  good  character  from  his  last  place ;  the 
entrance  of  Mme.  de  Stae'l  into  London  society ;  various 
marriages,  some  respectable,  others  not ;  a  visit  to  Lord 
Grey  at  Howick,  where  his  countenance  "exhibited 
gaiety  and  smiles  which  never  were  seen  this  side  of 
Highgate  Hill "  ;  and  an  illness  of  the  Regent  treated, 
after  the  drastic  methods  then  in  vogue,  first  by  drawing 
60  ounces  of  blood,  then  by  administering  laudanum 
and  cordials.  The  tone  is  that  of  an  accomplished 
woman  of  the  world,  fond  of  gossip,  but  not  to  the  extent 
of  straying  beyond  good  nature  and  good  breeding. 

Lady  Holland's  warmheartedness  comes  out  most 
strongly,  however,  in  her  letters  to  Francis  Horner, 
whom  she  and  her  husband  regarded  almost  as  a  son. 
When,  in  1816,  the  health  of  that  Marcellus  of  the 


72  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

Whig  party  broke  down,  she  hastened  to  put  three 
rooms  in  Holland  House  at  his  disposal  for  the  winter, 
where  he  could  have  his  time,  company,  and  occupa- 
tions all  to  himself.  "  Pray  spare  me,"  she  wrote,  "  all 
the  commonplace  compliments  of  giving  trouble  and 
taking  up  too  many  rooms.  What  you  know  I  feel 
towards  you  ought  to  exempt  me  from  any  such  trash." 
The  doctors,  however,  decided  that  Horner  must  winter 
in  the  South,  and  he  went  to  Pisa  to  die.  But  she 
kept  up  a  correspondence  with  him  to  the  last,  per- 
suading him  to  reconsider  his  opinion  of  Sismondi, 
the  historian,  whom  he  had  condemned  as  "  a  very 
poor  writer,  greatly  below  the  name  he  had  got,"  and 
forwarding  to  him  the  "  Tales  of  My  Landlord."  "  No 
one,"  the  grateful  patient  declared,  "knows  half  so 
well  what  to  write,  or  how  to  write  it." 

When  Moore  was  entrusted  with  Byron's  "  Memoirs," 
and  contemplated  their  publication,  he  took  the  prudent 
course  of  disarming  her  possible  resentment.  Thus  on 
July  6,  1821,  he  wrote  in  his  journal  : 

"  By  the  bye,  I  yesterday  gave  Lady  Holland  Lord  Byron's 
'  Memoirs '  to  read,  and  on  my  telling  her  that  I  rather  fancied 
he  had  mentioned  her  name  in  an  unfair  manner  somewhere, 
she  said,  '  Such  things  give  me  no  uneasiness  :  I  know  per- 
fectly well  my  station  in  the  world,  and  I  know  all  that  can  be 
said  of  me.  As  long  as  the  few  friends  I  am  really  sure  of 
speak  kindly  (and  I  would  not  believe  the  contrary  if  I  saw  it 
in  black  and  white),  all  that  the  rest  of  the  world  may  say  is  a 
matter  of  complete  indifference  to  me.' " 

An  excellent  maxim,  though  one  more  easily  laid  down 
than  carried  out.  She  had  greater  cause  for  resent- 
ment when  Lady  Caroline  Lamb,  fresh  from  her 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  73 

rupture  with  Byron,  proceeded,  in  the  notorious  roman 
a  clef,  "Glenarvon,"  to  satirise  Holland  House  as 
Barbary  House,  and  its  mistress,  to  the  undying  joy 
of  Creevey,  as  the  Princess  of  Madagascar.  Lady 
Holland,  however,  took  the  spiteful  attack  with  an 
unconcern  which  appears  the  more  praiseworthy 
when  we  remember  that  after  Byron's  farewell  letter 
the  feature  in  the  book  which  attracted  most  attention 
was  the  spiteful  caricature  of  Holland  House.  The 
portraiture  was  unmistakable,  and  in  addition  Barbary 
House  was  identified  as  "an  old-fashioned  Gothic 
building  three  miles  beyond  the  turnpike."  The  "  pale 
poet "  of  the  following  extract  is,  of  course,  Rogers ; 
Hoiaouskim,  John  Allen  ;  Luttrell  is  supposed  to  have 
stood  for  Mr.  Filmore,  while  Calantha,  Lady  Avondale, 
is  Lady  Caroline  herself. 

"  Calantha  now,  for  the  first  time,  conversed  with  the  learned 
in  the  land  :  she  heard  new  opinions  started  and  old  ones 
refuted  ;  and  she  gazed  unhurt  but  not  unawed  upon  reviewers, 
poets,  critics,  and  politicians.  At  the  end  of  a  long  gallery,  two 
thick  wax  tapers  rendering  4  darkness  visible,'  the  Princess 
was  seated.  A  poet  of  an  emaciated  and  sallow  complexion 
stood  beside  her ;  of  him  it  was  averred  that  in  the  kindest 
and  most  engaging  manner  he,  at  all  times,  said  precisely  that 
which  is  most  unpleasant  to  the  person  he  appeared  to  praise. 
This  yellow  hyena  had,  however,  a  heart  noble,  magnanimous, 
and  generous  ;  and  even  his  friends,  could  they  but  escape 
from  his  smile  and  his  tongue,  had  no  reason  to  complain. 
Few  events,  if  any,  were  ever  known  to  move  the  Princess 
from  her  position.  Her  pages — her  foreign  attire,  but 
genuine  English  manners,  voice  and  complexion,  attracted 
universal  admiration.  She  was  beautiful  too,  and  had  a  smile 
it  was  difficult  to  learn  to  hate  or  mistrust.  She  spoke  of  her 
own  country  with  contempt,  and  even  in  her  dress,  which  was 


74  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

magnificent,  attempted  to  prove  the  superiority  of  every  other 
over  it.  Her  morals  were  simple  and  incorrupt,  and  in 
matters  of  religious  faith  she  entirely  surrendered  herself  to 
the  guidance  of  Hoiaouskim.  She  inclined  her  head  a  little 
upon  seeing  Lady  Avondale  ;  the  dead,  I  mean  the  sick  poet, 
did  the  same  ;  and  Hoiaouskim,  her  high  priest,  cast  his  eyes 
with  unassuming  civility  upon  Calantha,  thus  welcoming  her 
to  Barbary  House. 

"  The  Princess  then  spoke  a  little  sentence — just  enough  to 
show  how  much  she  intended  to  protect  Lady  Avondale.  She 
addressed  herself,  besides,  in  many  dialects  to  an  outlandish 
set  of  menials,  appointing  every  one  in  the  room  some  trifling 
task,  which  was  performed  in  a  moment  by  young  and  old, 
with  surprising  alacrity.  Such  is  the  force  of  fashion  and 
power  when  skilfully  applied.  After  this,  she  called  Calantha : 
a  slight  exordium  followed,  then  a  wily  pointed  catechism, 
her  Highness  nodding  at  intervals,  and  dropping  short 
epigrammatic  sentences,  when  necessary,  to  such  as  were  in 
attendance  about  her.  '  Is  she  acting  ?  '  asked  Calantha,  at 
length,  in  a  whisper,  addressing  the  sallow-complexioned  poet, 
who  stood  sneering  and  simpering  behind  her  chair.  l  Is  she 
acting,  or  is  this  reality  ? '  '  It  is  the  only  reality  you  will 
ever  find  in  the  Princess,'  returned  her  friend.  '  She  acts  the 
Princess  of  Madagascar  from  morning  till  night,  and  from 
night  till  morning.  You  may  fall  from  favour,  but  you  are 
now  at  the  height :  no  one  ever  advanced  further — none  ever 
continued  there  long.' 

"  *  But  why,'  said  Lady  Avondale,  "  do  the  great  Nabob, 
and  all  the  other  Lords-in-waiting,  with  that  black  horde  of 

savages '  '  Reviewers,  you  mean,  and  men  of  talents.' 

'  Well,  whatever  they  are,  tell  me  quickly  why  they  wear 
collars  and  chains  round  their  necks  at  Barbary  House  ? '  'It 
is  the  fashion,'  replied  the  poet.  '  This  fashion  is  unbecoming 
your  race,'  said  Lady  Avondale  ;  '  I  would  die  sooner  than 
be  thus  enchained.'  '  The  great  Nabob,'  quoth  Mr.  Filmore, 
joining  in  the  discourse,  '  is  the  best,  the  kindest,  the  cleverest 
man  I  know,  but,  like  some  philosophers,  he  would  sacrifice 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  75 

much  for  a  peaceable  life.  The  Princess  is  fond  of  inflicting 
these  lesser  tyrannies  :  she  is  so  helplessly  attached  to  trifles 
— so  unweaningly  fond  of  exercising  her  powers,  it  were  a 
pity  to  thwart  her.  For  my  own  part,  I  could  willingly  bend 
to  the  yoke,  provided  the  duration  were  not  eternal ;  for 
observe  that  the  chains  are  well  gilded  ;  that  the  tables  are 
well  stored  ;  and  that  those  who  bend  the  lowest  are  the 
best  received.'  l  And  if  I  also  bow  my  neck,'  said  Calantha, 
4  will  she  be  grateful  ?  May  I  depend  upon  her  seeming 
kindness  ? '  The  poet's  naturally  pale  complexion  turned  to  a 
bluish  green  at  this  inquiry." 

By  way  of  adding  a  genial  touch  or  two,  Lady 
Caroline,  in  the  course  of  the  novel,  describes  Lady 
Holland  as  travelling  with  "  twenty-three  attendants 
and  fifty-four  domestic  friends,"  as  deserting  the  fallen 
and  silencing  the  most  contemptible  scribblers  with  the 
grossest  flattery,  as  fearing  death  and  yet  dying  with 
the  word  "cook"  on  her  lips. 

Lady  Holland  survived  her  assailant  by  a  good  many 
years,  and  when  death  drew  near  her  in  the  autumn 
of  1845,  she  faced  it  with  much  courage.  Greville 
asserts  that  she  never  gave  the  least  sign  of  religious 
feeling  or  belief,  yet  "evinced  during  her  last  illness 
a  very  philosophical  calmness  and  resolution  and  perfect 
good-humour."  She  consoled  herself  with  the  reflection 
that  during  her  existence  she  had  done  as  much  good 
and  as  little  harm  as  she  could.  Greville  devotes  to  her 
one  of  his  most  elaborate  characters,  and  does  her 
substantial  justice,  though  he  seems  at  all  times  to  have 
been  rather  afraid  of  her.  She  was  "always  intensely 
selfish,"  and  "a  woman  for  whom  nobody  felt  any 
affection,  but  she  entertained  feelings  of  friendship  as 
strongly  as  her  nature  permitted."  Hers  was,  in  fact, 


76  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

a  hard  masculine  intellect,  accustomed  to  domineer,  and 
intent  on  getting  her  own  way.  General  Fox,  as  a  boy, 
complained  that  she  showed  less  affection  to  her  children 
than  to  their  young  friends  who  were  invited  to  the 
house,  and  a  condition  of  her  will  by  which  she  left  her 
property  at  Kennington  to  Lord  John  Russell  for  his 
life  was  generally  blamed.  Yet  Lady  Holland  could  be 
amiable  when  she  chose,  and  her  severest  critics 
agreed  that  she  was  unremittingly  kind  to  her  intimate 
friends  when  they  were  ill  and  suffering.  Lady  Gran- 
ville,  who  did  not  like  her,  gave  as  a  final  verdict  :  "  That 
woman  has  suffered  much,  and  I  will  never  again  say 
she  has  no  heart."  With  all  her  absurdities  she  was 
an  able  woman,  well  read  and  receptive  of  information. 
She  was  proud  of  her  position,  the  more  so,  no  doubt, 
because  it  had  taken  much  pains  to  gain,  and  she  was 
far  from  being  a  mere  promiscuous  angler  after  social 
celebrities,  except,  perhaps,  after  her  husband's  death, 
when  she  seems  to  have  developed  a  craving  for  fresh 
faces  and  new  houses.  In  her  best  days  she  selected 
her  court  with  care,  and  would  have  cashiered  an  unsuit- 
able addition  to  it  without  much  ceremony  and,  indeed, 
with  no  ceremony  at  all.  The  most  pleasing  portrait  of 
her  is  Guizot's,  drawn  when  he  was  in  London  as 
French  Ambassador.  Calling  and  finding  her  alone, 
he  asked  if  she  often  was  so.  She  answered  : 

" '  No,  very  seldom  ;  but  when  it  occurs  I  am  not  without 
resources,'  and,  pointing  to  the  portraits,  she  observed  :  '  I 
ask  the  friends  you  see  there  to  come  down  ;  I  know  the 
place  that  each  preferred,  the  armchair  in  which  he  was 
accustomed  to  sit  :  I  find  myself  again  with  Fox,  Romilly, 
Sheridan,  and  Horner ;  they  speak  to  me  and  I  am  no  longer 
by  myself.'" 


HOST  AND   HOSTESS  77 

Guizot,  as  became  a  Frenchman,  was  much  attendri 
by  these  remarks,  and  took  away  a  favourable  impression 
of  this  "  haughty,  imperious  and  capricious  woman,  who, 
in  the  midst  of  the  triumphs  she  had  won  by  her  beauty 
and  talents,  yet  retained  the  reputation  of  coldness  and 
egotism." 

Among  Lady  Holland's  amiable  qualities  were  kind- 
ness to  servants  and  fondness  for  flowers.  Greville 
describes  her  as  making  a  great  fuss  over  the  illness 
of  her  page,  called  Edgar,  though  his  real  name  was 
Tom  or  Jack,  and  termed  a  "little  creature,"  though 
he  was  a  hulking  fellow  of  twenty.  Her  guests  were 
compelled  to  sit  by  his  bedside  and  amuse  him,  not 
a  little,  one  would  imagine,  to  the  mutual  embarrassment 
of  would-be  entertainers  and  entertained.  The  fact 
remains  that  Lord  Holland's  death  sixteen  years  after- 
wards found  Edgar  still  in  their  service.  As  a  horti- 
culturist Lady  Holland  reintroduced  the  dahlia,  in  1804, 
a  plant  which  the  Marchioness  of  Bute  had  failed  to 
establish  in  1789.  Her  attempt  was  only  attended,  how- 
ever, by  temporary  success,  and  it  was  not  until  1815 
that  a  permanent  stock  was  introduced  from  France. 
She  planned  the  small  formal  gardens  on  the  western 
side  of  the  house,  and  of  them  the  Dutch  garden  with 
its  pattern  of  straight  paths  bordered  by  box  is  praised 
by  Leigh  Hunt  in  "  The  Old  Court  Suburb  "  as  a  fitting 
accompaniment  to  the  old  building. 


CHAPTER   VI 
MISS   FOX  AND  JOHN   ALLEN 

A  cultivated  maiden  lady — Jeremy  Bentham's  only  love — At  Paris 
and  Combe  Florey — Miss  Fox's  recollections — John  Allen's  introduc- 
tion to  the  Hollands — A  philosopher  on  the  trot — An  established 
institution — Passages  of  arms — Political  and  irreligious  opinions — 
An  armchair  statesman — "  The  Rise  and  Growth  of  the  Royal 
Prerogative  " — Fugitive  writings — Allen  and  Blanco  White — The 
loss  of  a  friend — Allen's  death. 

MISS  FOX,  Lord  Holland's  only  sister,  died  in 
March,  1845,  eight  months  before  Lady  Holland, 
and  Greville  regretted  her  as  a  most  amiable 
woman,  with  excellent  abilities.  She  lived  for  many 
years  at  Little  Holland  House  with  her  cousin,  Miss 
Vernon,  as  her  companion,  until  the  death  of  the  latter 
in  1830.  Her  days  seem  to  have  flowed  tranquilly  and 
happily  away,  among  such  interests  as  were  accessible 
in  those  days  to  a  maiden  lady  of  cultivated  and  active 
mind.  An  early  glimpse  we  catch  of  her  is  by  the 
bedside  of  Charles  James  Fox,  when  she  soothed  his 
last  hours  by  reading  aloud,  chiefly  from  novels.  "  I 
like  your  reading,  young  one,"  said  Fox  to  Lord  Holland, 
"  but  I  liked  it  better  before  I  heard  your  sister's.  That 
is  better  than  yours,  I  can  tell  you."  Various  accidents, 
it  appears,  had  prevented  his  seeing  much  of  her  until 

7» 


MISS  FOX  AND  JOHN   ALLEN  79 

some  three  years  before  his  death.  "  But,"  wrote  Lord 
Holland  in  his  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party,"  "  all  her 
excellent  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  came  upon  him 
at  once,  and  endeared  her,  as  well  they  might,  most 
sincerely  to  my  uncle."  Macaulay,  too,  praised  her 
reading  ;  it  was  more  quiet  and  less  theatrical  than 
the  general  run. 

The  romance  of  Miss  Fox's  life,  if  romance  it  can  be 
called,  occurred,  however,  some  twenty-five  years  earlier, 
when  she  became  the  first  and  only  love  of  the  philo- 
sopher, Jeremy  Bentham.  They  met  at  Bowood  as 
guests  of  Lord  Shelburne,  in  1781,  and  in  a  letter 
to  a  friend  the  future  reformer  of  our  jurisprudence 
described  how  they  spent  their  evenings  together  over 
the  chess-board.  "  She  seems  a  good-natured,  pleasant 
kind  of  girl ;  but  has  not  much  to  say  for  herself,  as  yet, 
as  you  may  imagine.  Her  face — I  had  like  to  have  forgot 
her  face — is  far  from  being  an  unpleasant  one  ;  but  the 
form  of  it,  which  is  rather  too  long  ;  a  mouth,  which  is 
the  Fox  mouth  ;  and  a  set  of  teeth,  which,  though  white, 
are  rather  too  large,  save  her  from  being  a  beauty." 
By  and  by  Bentham  began  to  survey  her  with  a  less 
severely  critical  eye  ;  he  was  glad  to  possess  a  sketch  of 
her  in  crayons  executed  by  a  lady  staying  in  the  house, 
and  when  he  left  he  sent  her  ponderous  compliments 
through  Lord  Shelburne.  "  Missing  the  chess-board," 
he  wrote,  "  it  is  possible  that,  for  a  week  or  so,  she  might 
be  led  to  bestow  a  straggling  thought  on  the  once  happy 
man  who  used  to  sit  on  the  other  side  of  it."  But  he 
never  told  his  love,  and  his  biographer,  Bowring,  records 
the  half-pathetic,  half -grotesque  sequel.  A  short  time 
before  his  death  in  1832  he  sent  a  playful  "love  epistle" 
to  Miss  Fox,  speaking  of  the  grey  hairs  of  age  and  the 


8o  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

bliss  of  youth.  "  I  was  with  Bentham,"  writes  Bowring, 
"  when  the  answer  came  to  this  letter — that  answer  was 
cold  and  distant — it  contained  no  reference  to  the  state 
of  former  affections  ;  and  he  was  indescribably  hurt  and 
disappointed  by  it." 

Miss  Fox  might  well  be  excused  from  fully  appreciating 
the  importance  of  what  had  evidently  been  a  suppressed 
adoration.  In  those  precise  days  the  son  of  a  city 
attorney,  however  eminent,  could  never  have  aspired  to 
the  hand  of  a  peer's  daughter.  She  had,  besides,  set  her 
affections  on  her  brother,  whom  she  nursed  during  his 
many  illnesses,  and  her  brother's  family.  "Aunt  Ibby" 
or  "  Little  Aunty  "  is  to  be  discovered  in  Lady  Granville's 
correspondence  staying  with  the  Hollands  in  Paris, 
where  Lord  Holland  promised  her  a  dinner  at  Robert's. 
She  paid  a  visit  to  Sydney  Smith  at  Combe  Florey,  and 
he  sent  her  nephew,  General  Fox,  an  account  of  her 
being  foiled  by  a  gate  with  a  double  latch,  made  to  stop 
donkeys,  "  till  Bobus  and  I  recalled  her  with  loud 
laughter,  showed  her  that  she  had  two  hands,  and  roused 
her  to  vindicate  her  superiority  over  the  donkeys."  When 
six  months  before  her  death  she  was  attacked  by  a  stroke 
of  paralysis,  the  Canon  of  St.  Paul's  called  her  "  a  most 
beautiful  specimen  of  human  excellence."  She  abounded 
in  reminiscences  of  Mackintosh  and  Dr.  Parr  ;  she  heard 
Coleridge  descant  on  German  literature  during  a  whole 
dinner  at  Bowood,  and  afterwards  recite  "  Christabel," 
then  unpublished,  without  a  pause.  She  described 
Bentham's  manners,  it  is  satisfactory  to  know,  as  quite 
unlike  those  of  any  one  else,  but  there  was  a  singular 
charm  about  them,  they  were  so  perfectly  natural  and 
simple.  Unlike  her  brother  and  sister-in-law,  she  was  a 
person  of  sincerely  religious  feeling. 


JOHN   ALLKN,    M.D. 

FROM    THE    PAINTING    BY   SIR    EDWIN    LANDSEER,    R.A.,  IN   THK    NATIONAL    I'ORTKAIT   GALLERY 


MISS  FOX  AND  JOHN  ALLEN  81 

John  Allen  completed  the  household,  combining  the 
positions  of  librarian,  steward,  and  inseparable  friend. 
The  relationship  was  more  common  a  century  ago  than 
it  is  to-day.  Dumont,  the  Swiss  publicist,  occupied  at 
one  time  a  similar  place  at  Bowood,  and  Crabbe  was  foi 
some  years  domesticated  at  Belvoir.  Allen,  together 
with  Mackintosh  and  Horner,  was,  no  doubt,  in  Lord 
Brougham's  mind  when  he  remarked  that,  whereas  Fox 
had  cultivated  the  society  of  Irishmen,  Lord  Holland 
preferred  to  associate  with  Scotsmen.  Born  in  1771,  and 
the  son  of  a  writer  to  the  Signet,  he  took  a  medical 
degree  from  Edinburgh  University  at  the  age  of  twenty. 
A  professor  of  Whig  opinions  at  a  time  when  to  hold 
those  opinions  was  risky,  he  took  part  in  a  dinner  held 
to  celebrate  the  fall  of  the  Bastille,  and  associated  with 
the  brilliant  band  which  acknowledged  the  intellectual 
influence  of  Dugald  Stewart,  and  which  subsequently 
combined  to  found  the  Edinburgh  Review.  Sydney 
Smith,  while  staying  in  the  Scots  capital  during  the 
days  of  his  early  poverty  with  his  pupil,  Mr.  Beach, 
also  joined  the  set,  and  he  it  was,  according  to  one 
account,  who  introduced  Allen  to  Lord  Holland. 
General  Fox  asserted,  however,  that  the  two  were 
brought  together  by  Lord  Lauderdale.  The  explana- 
tion may  be  that  Allen,  hearing  that  Lord  Holland  was 
looking  out  for  a  medical  man  to  accompany  the  family 
to  Spain,  armed  himself  with  letters  from  both  of  them. 
Anyhow,  he  made  his  first  appearance  at  Holland  House 
in  1802,  when  General  Fox  remembered  him  as  a  "stout, 
strong  man,  with  a  very  large  head,  a  broad  face,  enor- 
mous round  silver  spectacles  before  a  pair  of  peculiarly 
bright  and  intelligent  eyes,  and  with  the  thickest  legs  I 
ever  remember.  His  accent  Scotch,  his  manner  eager, 


82  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

but  extremely  good-natured,  all  made  a  lasting  impres- 
sion on  me,  then  a  boy  of  six  years  old."  Landseer's 
portrait  attests  the  fidelity  of  this  description  as  regarded 
the  upper  part  of  Allen's  person.  Sydney  Smith  poked 
fun  at  his  legs  when,  some  forty  years  later,  he  wrote 
to  Lady  Holland  that  "  they  are  enormous — they  are 
clerical  1  He  has  the  mind  of  a  philosopher,  with  the 
legs  of  a  clergyman ;  I  never  saw  such  legs — at  least 
belonging  to  a  layman." 

During  the  Spanish  tour  Allen  could  work  his  legs  to 
some  purpose.  General  Fox  remembered  that  he  used 
to  start,  book  in  hand,  in  front  of  the  train,  consisting  of 
three  large  English  carriages,  and  frequently  arrived  at 
the  end  of  the  next  relay  before  it.  If  he  was  in  danger 
of  being  overtaken  he  ran,  swaying  his  body  from  side  to 
side  in  the  oddest  manner.  A  philosopher  on  the  trot 
must  in  truth  have  been  a  strange  sight.  Travel  lasting 
nearly  three  years  made  Allen  indispensable  to  Lord  and 
Lady  Holland,  and  when  they  returned  home  he  joined 
their  household,  never  to  leave  it.  His  medical  qualifica- 
tions passed  out  of  sight,  and,  as  Greville  says,  he  became 
established  permanently  as  a  friend  and  looked  upon  as 
an  immense  literary  acquisition.  His  duties  embraced 
the  preparation  of  the  lists  of  those  who  were  to  be 
present  at  dinner,  while  during  that  meal  he  sat  at  the 
foot  of  the  table  and  carved,  often  with  a  running  com- 
mentary on  his  handiwork  from  Lady  Holland,  under 
which  he  was  known  to  turn  restive.  He  also  arranged 
what  rooms  those  staying  in  the  house  should  occupy, 
though  the  more  privileged,  such  as  Rogers  and  Frere, 
had  their  own  reserved  for  them.  Out  of  doors  he 
accompanied  Lady  Holland  when  she  drove,  and  was 
usually  invited  with  her  and  Lord  Holland  when  they 


MISS   FOX  AND  JOHN   ALLEN  83 

dined  with  friends.  He  went  abroad  with  them,  and 
Lady  Granville  describes  how,  in  Paris,  Lord  Holland 
roared  with  laughter  when,  at  a  sign  from  Lady  Holland, 
he  meekly  rose  from  the  dinner-table  to  go  with  her  to 
the  Theatre  Fran9ais. 

Such  an  existence  implies  a  complete  surrender  of 
individuality  rare  among  bachelors,  since  Allen  was 
never  allowed  to  absent  himself  from  Holland  House 
except  for  the  few  hours  in  each  week  when  his 
attendance  at  Dulwich  College,  where  he  was  Master 
for  twenty-two  years,  was  imperative.  Yet,  within  the 
prescribed  boundaries,  he  managed  to  get  pretty  much 
his  own  way.  Completely  in  the  confidence  of  Lord 
and  Lady  Holland,  he  was  treated  by  the  master  of  the 
house,  says  Greville,  with  uniform  consideration,  affec- 
tion, and  amenity,  while  its  mistress  worried,  bullied, 
flattered,  and  cajoled  him  by  turns.  To  Macaulay,  in 
the  early  days  of  their  acquaintance,  he  appeared  to  be 
used  by  her  "  worse  than  a  Nubian  slave,"  but  Sir  Henry 
Holland  declares  that  she  appeared  to  regard  him  with 
"a  certain  dim  fear."  In  their  frequent  sparrings  he 
seems  to  have  got  the  better  of  it  as  often  as  not. 
When,  after  the  Restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  he  com- 
mented ;on  the  age  (forty)  under  which  deputies  were 
not  allowed  to  enter  the  Chamber,  Lady  Holland 
descended  on  him  with,  "Come,  come,  Mr.  Allen,  for 
the  sake  of  a  coarse  epigram  making  a  most  brutal 
remark  1 "  But  he  won  a  signal  victory  in  an  encounter 
thus  retailed  by  Lord  Sefton  to  Creevey.  She  talked 
about  ages,  and  observed  that  Lord  Sefton  and  Lord 
Holland  were  of  the  same  age — about  fifty-six  :  "  For 
myself,"  she  said,  "  I  believe  I  am  near  the  same."  And 
then  the  page,  being  called,  was  told  to  ask  Allen  how 


84  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

old  she  was.  The  house,  a  "  nutshell "  she  was  occupy- 
ing during  a  temporary  absence  from  Holland  House,1 
being  small  and  the  rooms  near,  they  heard  Allen  holloa 
out  in  no  very  melodious  voice,  "  She  is  fifty-seven." 
But  Lady  Holland  was  not  content  with  this,  said  it  was 
too  old  for  her,  and  made  the  page  go  back  again  ;  and 
again  they  heard  Allen  roar,  in  a  much  louder  voice,  "  I 
tell  you  she's  fifty-seven  ! "  Altogether,  there  seems  no 
reason  for  finding  fault  with  Greville's  estimate  that  Allen 
was  "  a  mixture  of  pride,  humility,  and  independence  ; 
he  was  disinterested,  warm-hearted,  and  choleric." 

Allen  is  chiefly  remembered  as  the  literary  oracle  of 
Holland  House.  His  learning  and  general  knowledge 
were  extensive,  and,  living  in  a  library,  he  was  perpetually 
adding  to  his  stock.  Byron,  in  his  enthusiastic  way, 
described  him  as  "  the  best  informed  and  one  of  the 
ablest  men  I  know — a  perfect  Malliabrecchi  ;  a  devourer, 
a  heluo  of  books,  and  an  observer  of  men."  He  was 
the  universal  referee,  when  discussions  arose,  on  ques- 
tions of  fact,  and  he  was  never  found  at  fault.  Allen 
was  very  Liberal,  even  Republican,  in  his  political 
opinions,  and  in  religion  a  confirmed  sceptic,  whence 
he  was  called  in  derision,  "  Lady  Holland's  atheist." 
But  theology  was  not  touched  upon  at  Holland  House 
except  rarely  and  incidentally ;  and  besides,  Allen  did 
not  take  much  part  in  general  conversation,  though  he 
was  naturally  vivacious,  and  through  long  association 
with  wits  became  something  of  a  wit  himself.  The 
compactness  of  his  knowledge  was,  however,  his  most 
remarkable  gift.  Brougham,  in  a  warmly  eulogistic 

1  Evidently  the  house  in  South  Street,  where  Guizot  tells  us  that 
Lord  Holland  had  to  dress  in  the  dining-room  and  could  find  no 
place  in  which  to  bestow  his  books. 


MISS   FOX  AND  JOHN  ALLEN  85 

notice  of  him  to  be  found  appended  to  the  article  on 
Lord  Holland  in  the  "  Statesmen  of  the  Time  of 
George  III.,"  declares  that  he  had  "the  rare  faculty  of 
combining  general  views  with  details  of  fact,  and  thus  at 
once  availing  himself  of  all  that  theory  or  speculation 
presents  for  our  guide,  with  all  that  practical  experience 
affords  to  correct  those  results  of  general  reasoning." 
He  was  esteemed  an  authority  on  the  politics  of  the  day, 
though  the  instance  of  his  wisdom  given  by  Brougham 
will  fail  to  impress  most  people  by  its  profundity.  It 
was  to  the  effect  that  a  negotiator  ought  not  to  display 
earnestness  and  anxiety,  however  necessary  those 
qualities  might  be  to  one  addressing  a  popular 
assembly.  Allen's  value  as  a  political  adviser  consisted 
chiefly,  it  may  be  suspected,  in  the  historical  allusions 
he  provided  to  Lord  Holland's  speeches  and  in  the 
criticism  he  applied  to  his  protests. 

Brougham  sneers  at  the  "  ruling  caste  "  because  Allen 
never  filled  any  place  in  public  life  except  for  a  few 
months  in  1806,  when  he  acted  as  Under  Secretary  to 
the  Commissioners  treating  with  America,  of  whom 
Lord  Holland  was  one.  But  it  is  pretty  certain  that, 
if  he  had  so  desired  and  Lady  Holland  had  so  permitted, 
Allen  would  have  experienced  no  more  difficulty  in  finding 
a  seat  than  Horner,  Mackintosh,  Romilly,  Macaulay,  or, 
for  that  matter,  Brougham  himself.  He  evidently  loved 
his  ease  much  more  than  he  cherished  his  ambition,  and 
found  his  time  amply  occupied  with  a  multitude  of  small 
duties.  Besides,  his  politics  were  always  of  an  imprac- 
ticable kind.  A  theoretical  Republican,  he  ardently 
advocated  that  form  of  government  until  his  eyes  were 
opened  by  Napoleon's  assumption  of  the  purple.  The 
limitation  of  liberty  with  which  the  Restoration  of 


86  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

the  Bourbons  was  accompanied,  and  the  reactionary 
tendencies  of  Lord  Liverpool's  Ministry,  so  disgusted 
him  that  he  abandoned  modern  politics,  for  the  time 
being,  for  early  constitutional  history.  But  he  emerged, 
if  Brougham  is  to  be  trusted,  from  the  Heptarchy  to 
express  his  strong  disapproval  of  the  Reform  Bill  of 
1831-32  ;  he  regarded  it  as  all  but  revolutionary  and  as 
having  in  the  result  worked  great  mischief  in  the  com- 
position of  the  House  of  Commons,  whatever  benefit  it 
might  have  secured  to  the  Whigs  as  a  party  measure. 

With  his  time  much  occupied  in  looking  after  the 
concerns  of  others,  he  left  nothing  behind  him  worthy 
of  his  reputation.  His  most  important  work, an  "Inquiry 
into  the  Rise  and  Growth  of  the  Royal  Prerogative  in 
England,"  published  in  1830,  stands  at  a  disadvantage 
nowadays  because  of  the  great  advance  in  the  study  of 
the  origins  of  English  history  that  has  been  accomplished 
since  it  was  written.  The  treatise,  besides,  hardly  corre- 
sponds with  its  title.  It  is  not  exactly  an  attempt  to  trace 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  idea  of  kingship  from  the  pure 
despotism  of  the  Conqueror  or  Henry  II.  and  the 
authority  assumed  by  Henry  VIII.,  when  the  lex  regia 
gave  his  proclamations  the  force  of  law,  down  to 
its  supersession  by  the  "  Venetian  oligarchy "  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Allen  sets  himself  to  prove  rather 
that  the  actual  power  exercised  by  the  monarch  had 
never  squared  with  the  legal  fiction  of  an  ideal  king — as 
stated  by  Blackstone — a  statement  too  obvious  to  require 
much  demonstration.  He  puts,  however,  the  Whig 
theory  which  triumphed  at  the  Revolution  of  1688  with 
clearness  and  sobriety  : 

"  It  is  a  rare  fortune,  and  peculiar  to  England,  that  we  have 


MISS  FOX  AND  JOHN   ALLEN  87 

a  family  on  the  throne  who  have  no  legitimate  pretensions  to 
the  Crown  but  what  they  derive  from  Parliament.  The  Act 
of  Settlement,  which  is  the  sole  foundation  of  their  title,  has 
cut  off  all  obsolete  claims,  whether  derived  from  Egbert  or 
the  Conqueror.  .  .  .  When  we  hear  of  a  prerogative  interest 
in  the  Crown,  which  the  King  has  no  legal  means  of  exercis- 
ing, we  may  be  certain  that  it  has  no  existence  but  in  specula- 
tive notions  of  government.  Emergencies  may  arise  when  it 
is  necessary  for  the  safety  of  the  State  to  commit  additional 
powers  to  the  person  intrusted  with  its  defence.  But  when 
such  cases  occur,  we  are  to  be  guided  by  considerations  of 
reason  and  expediency  in  the  power  we  confer  and  not  by 
vain  and  empty  theories  of  prerogative,  which  the  very 
act  we  are  called  on  to  perform  proves  to  be  futile  and 
unfounded." 

All  this  is  true  enough,  but  Allen  was  too  much  disposed 
to  quote  Saxon  precedents  as  if  they  had  been  the  sole 
influence  to  colour  the  monarchical  idea  throughout 
English  history. 

The  rest  of  Allen's  writings  are  concerned  mostly  with 
controversial  points  whence  the  interest  has  evaporated. 
His  patriotic  pride  having  been  touched  by  Sir  Francis 
Palgrave's  assertion  that  his  country  was  subject  to 
England  from  the  seventh  to  the  fourteenth  centuries, 
he  published  in  1833  a  "Vindication  of  the  Ancient 
Independence  of  Scotland."  He  also  carried  on  a 
pamphlet  duel  with  Dr.  Lingard,  firing  the  first  shot  in 
the  Edinburgh  Review  on  the  credibility  of  that  Catholic 
historian's  account  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. 
Of  his  other  contributions  to  the  Edinburgh,  a  review  of 
Warden's  letters  from  St.  Helena  astonished  Napoleon 
when  it  reached  that  island  by  its  intimate  knowledge  of 
his  early  life.  The  number  which  was  forwarded  to 
the  Emperor,  and  which  he  marked  approvingly  in 


88  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  margin,  is  now  in  the  Holland  House  library  ;  the 
information  was  derived  by  Lord  Holland  from  Cardinal 
Fesch.  But  a  study  on  the  interior  economy  and 
administration  of  Spain  under  the  different  periods  of 
her  history,  the  materials  for  which  he  collected  during 
the  tour  of  1807  with  the  Hollands  and  Lord  John 
Russell,  was  never  finished,  and  some  "  Suggestions  for 
the  Cortes "  were  printed  for  private  circulation  only, 
though  Dr.  Parr  decided  he  had  never  read  anything 
"  with  such  unhesitative  approbation."  His  sympathy 
with  Spanish  Liberalism  induced  him,  however,  to  give 
constant  assistance  and  advice  to  Blanco  White  when 
that  refugee  was  producing  his  propagandist  paper,  the 
Espanol,  and  he  subsequently  persuaded  the  unhappy 
being  to  stand,  though  without  success,  for  the  organist 
fellowship  at  Dulwich.  "  With  your  knowledge  of  music 
I  have  no  doubt  that  you  will  learn  to  play  the  organ 
in  a  much  shorter  time  than  a  few  months "  is  an 
encouragement  which  reads  rather  oddly  in  these  days 
of  acute  competition.  Allen  had  evidently  forgiven 
Blanco  White  his  "  Evidences  Against  Catholicism," 
which,  on  its  appearance  in  1825,  made  him  explode 
with  comical  wrath  : 

"  Since  we  last  parted,  I  have  read  your  book  with  very 
great  pain,  and  no  small  degree  of  mortification.  I  was 
grieved  you  should  have  written  a  book,  the  tendency  of 
which  was  to  defeat  an  object  to  which  so  many  of  your 
friends  have  devoted  their  lives  and  sacrificed  every  worldly 
prospect,  and  I  was  surprised  and  mortified,  after  so  many 
years'  acquaintance,  to  discover,  for  the  first  time,  that  you 
were  an  enemy  to  Catholic  Emancipation.  Notwithstanding 
your  hatred  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  I  believed  you  a  sincere 
friend  of  religious  liberty  ;  but  now  I  find  that,  after  all  your 


MISS  FOX  AND  JOHN  ALLEN  89 

efforts  to  divest  yourself  of  the  rags  of  Popery,  the  mantle  of 
Father  Torquemada  still  cleaves  to  you  like  the  shirt  of 
Nessus.  I  have  not  the  vanity  to  suppose  that  I  can  disrobe 
you,  and  as  our  last  conversation  might  lead  you  to  imagine 
that  I  would  make  the  attempt,  I  write  chiefly  to  assure  you 
that,  after  reading  your  book,  I  have  no  thoughts  of  review- 
ing it,  nor  of  recommending  to  any  other  person  to  review  it, 
hastily,  or  at  all." 

Very  different  in  tone  from  this  irate  rebuke  were 
Allen's  letters  to  Horner  during  the  last  week  of  the  sick 
man's  life ;  they  were  cheery  and  considerate.  To  that 
estimable  politician's  father  he  wrote  a  model  specimen 
of  that  difficult  form  of  composition,  a  letter  of 
condolence : 

"  I  have  lost  a  friend  of  twenty  years'  standing,  whose 
advice  I  have  for  many  years  been  accustomed  to  use  on 
every  event  and  project  of  my  life,  to  whose  appreciation  I 
looked  forward  as  the  reward  and  incentive  of  all  my  labours 
and  occupations,  in  whose  judgment  I  had  the  most  perfect 
reliance,  and  whose  integrity  of  character  and  benevolence 
of  heart  I  had  every  day  more  reason  to  admire.  The 
prospect  of  life  before  me,  though  uncertain,  is  long  enough 
to  make  me  feel  severely  the  loss  of  such  a  friend  and 
counsellor,  and  too  short  to  allow  me  to  indulge  a  hope  that 
I  can  acquire  another  of  the  same  value,  if  such  another  as 
he  was  is  to  be  found." 

When  Allen  died,  in  April,  1843,  he  was  buried  at 
Millbrook,  close  by  Lord  Holland  and  a  daughter  of  the 
house,  who  found  an  early  grave  and  to  whom  he  had 
been  much  attached. 


CHAPTER   VII 
HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND   FOX'S   FRIENDS 

The  salon  in  England — The  dining-room  and  library  at  Holland 
House — Wanted,  a  Boswell — Greville's  record  of  conversation — 
Poets  and  women  of  genius — Lord  Melbourne  on  theology — A 
tolerant  atmosphere — General  Fitzpatrick — Indolent  but  sagacious 
— Epigrams  and  the  "  Rolliad  " — Hare's  wit — An  oracle  of  Brooks' s — 
Lord  John  Townshend  and  Dudley  North — Adair  and  the  Anti- 
Jacobin — St.  Petersburg  and  Constantinople — Adair  and  Stratford 
Canning — Lord  Lauderdale — A  violent  Whig — Lauderdale's  mission 
to  France — A  "cunning  old  renegade" — "Citizen"  Stanhope — A 
Jacobin  peer — Perverse  inventions. 

THE  salon,  as  Hay  ward  has  remarked,  is  a  social 
institution  which  cannot  be  said  to  have  pros- 
pered largely  out  of  France.  It  is  essentially 
feminine,  and  demands  a  fetnme  d'esprit  for  its  head.  It 
also  implies  intimacy  between  a  small  set  of  persons,  who 
are  accustomed  to  meet  without  any  formal  invitation. 
The  nearest  approach  to  an  English  salon,  if  we  except 
the  gatherings  organised  by  Mrs.  Montague  and  Miss 
Chapone,  was  made  by  the  Miss  Berrys,  who  were  not 
unfrequently  content  to  light  the  lamp  over  the  door  of 
their  house  in  Curzon  Street,  by  way  of  notice  to  their 
friends  that  they  were  at  home.  The  society  at  Holland 
House  was  not  conducted  on  these  simple  principles, 
which  had  indeed  become  impracticable,  even  in  the 

London   of  the   Regency,   a   London    bounded  on  the 

90 


s,  ?  = 


HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND  FOX'S  FRIENDS      91 

south  by  Pall  Mall,  on  the  north  by  Oxford  Street,  on 
the  east  by  Regent  Street,  and  on  the  west  by  Park  Lane. 
It  thus  escaped  the  narrow  preciosity  of  a  coterie,  while  a 
permanent  element,  Allen,  Rogers,  Luttrell,  and — though 
probably  to  a  less  extent — Lord  Melbourne,  prevented 
its  dinners  from  assuming  an  appearance  of  undue 
promiscuousness. 

The  dining-room  was  the  rallying-point,  described  by 
Princess  Liechtenstein  as  cheerful  and  convivial  in  ap- 
pearance. "  Besides  many  likenesses  speaking  to  us  from 
its  crimson  damask  walls,  it  has  a  sideboard  rich  and 
glittering  with  venerable  family  plate,  a  great  looking- 
glass  in  which  a  merry  party  may  have  the  satisfaction  of 
finding  itself  repeated,  and  a  gay  china  closet,  filled  mostly 
from  the  East."  It  was,  by  a  curious  contradiction,  the 
room  in  which  Addison  breathed  his  last.  The  pictures 
included  Kneller's  portrait  of  Lady  Fox,  Sir  Stephen's 
second  wife,  Reynolds's  of  the  first  Lady  Holland,  and 
Fagan's  of  Elizabeth  Lady  Holland,  and  the  likenesses 
of  friends  such  as  the  third  Lord  Lansdowne  after 
Lawrence,  Moore  by  Shee,  Rogers  by  Hoppner,  and 
Lord  John  Russell  by  Hayter — an  interesting  group. 
The  library,  "  that  venerable  chamber,"  as  Macaulay 
calls  it,  with  "  shelves  loaded  with  the  varied  learning  of 
many  lands  and  many  ages,"  and  portraits  "in  which 
were  preserved  the  features  of  the  best  and  wisest 
Englishmen  of  two  generations,"  was  originally  a  portrait 
gallery.  Lord  Holland's  accumulated  books  banished 
the  pictures  into  other  rooms,  though  he  still  put  many 
portraits  above  them,  of  friends,  kinsfolk,  and  men  of 
letters  with  Addison  at  their  head.1  Leigh  Hunt  gives 

1  This  portrait  is  of  dubious  authenticity,  and  is  supposed  to  be 
that  of  Addison's  friend,  Sir  A.  Fountaine. 


92  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  dimensions  of  the  library  as  upwards  of  90  ft.  long, 
by  only  17  ft.  4  in.  wide,  and  14  ft.  7  in.  in  height.  "The 
moment  one  enters  it,"  he  continues,  "  one  looks  at  the 
two  ends  and  thinks  of  the  traditions  about  Addison's 
pacings  to  and  fro,"  with  a  bottle  of  wine  to  fortify  him 
at  each  end  of  the  room.  Leigh  Hunt  took  exception  to 
the  vaulted  compartments  of  the  ceiling,  with  their 
groundwork  of  blue  relieved  by  gold  stars,  as  unsuitable 
to  the  winter's  enjoyment  of  a  book  by  the  fireside. 
But  the  library  looks  cosy  enough  in  Leslie's  picture, 
which  engravings  have  rendered  familiar;  and  it  is 
superfluous  to  dwell  on  its  historical  and  literary  asso- 
ciations. 

Greville  is  the  only  diarist  who  chronicles  with  any 
minuteness  the  conversation  at  Holland  House.  The 
entries  in  Moore's  journal  are  interesting  enough  so  far 
as  they  go,  but  they  are  chiefly  concerned  with  scraps 
of  conversation  which  relate  to  himself  and  his  projects, 
and  Mackintosh  is  even  less  illustrative.  Macaulay, 
amusingly  though  he  writes  about  Holland  House,  is 
chiefly  concerned  with  "her"  oddities,  her  oppression 
of  Allen,  and  her  perttyrbation  when  the  French  cook 
was  ill.  But  he  makes  no  attempt  to  give  the  range 
of  the  conversation  or  the  part  taken  in  it  by  the 
various  speakers.  Holland  House,  in  short,  never 
had  its  Boswell.  Yet  Lord  Holland  himself  kept  a 
six  days'  record  of  the  conversation  in  1814,  as  an 
experiment  of  what  could  be  done  in  that  direction, 
which  he  showed,  amongst  others,  to  Jeffrey.  "  It  is  very 
entertaining,"  writes  the  latter,  "and  contained  some 
capital  specimens  of  Grattan,  Parr,  Frere,  Windham,  and 
Erskine,  but  I  quite  agree  with  him  that  it  would  not 
have  been  fair  to  continue  it."  A  continuous  chronicle, 


HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND   FOX'S  FRIENDS      93 

had  its  existence  become  generally  known,  would 
certainly  have  acted  as  a  damper  to  the  talk  of  all  except 
the  most  hardened  of  drawing-room  declaimers.  But  it 
would  have  been  invaluable  as  illustrating  just  that  period 
of  the  existence  of  Holland  House  which  it  is  most 
difficult  to  reproduce  from  the  contemporary  memoirs 
and  diaries,  the  period  when  the  Regency  had  attained 
the  height  of  its  prosperity,  and  when  the  contemporaries 
of  Fox  were  rapidly  being  replaced  by  the  contemporaries 
of  Brougham  and  Melbourne. 

Greville's  record  is  chiefly  concerned  with  conversa- 
tions in  which  Macaulay  and  Lord  Melbourne  played 
the  principal  parts.  Readers  of  the  journal  will  re- 
member how,  meeting  the  historian  for  the  first  time, 
the  diarist  set  him  down  as  a  dull  fellow,  how  that 
opinion  was  modified  by  an  allusion  to  the  wounding 
of  Loyola  at  Pampeluna,  and  how  Lord  Auckland's 
challenge,  "  Mr.  Macaulay,  will  you  drink  a  glass  of 
wine  ? "  produced  final  enlightenment.  The  incident 
occurred  in  1832.  Two  years  later  Greville  made  three 
elaborate  attempts  to  chronicle  the  conversation.  On 
the  first  evening  there  were  present  Lord  Melbourne, 
Spring  Rice,  who  was  to  succeed  Lord  Althorp  as  a 
Whig  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  his  son,  and 
Lord  Palmerston.  They  were  subsequently  reinforced 
by  Allen  and  Bobus  Smith.  The  talk  turned  on  litera- 
ture, Lord  Melbourne  expressing  the  unexceptionable 
opinion  that  Taylor's  "Philip  van  Artevelde"  was  superior 
to  anything  in  Milman.  They  held  Wordsworth  cheap, 
except  Spring  Rice,  who  was  enthusiastic  about  him. 
Lord  Holland  thought  Crabbe  the  greatest  genius  among 
modern  poets.  Lord  Melbourne  replied,  with  much  per- 
tinence, that  he  degraded  every  subject.  After  stories 


94  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

had  been  told  of  Edward  Irving  and  his  followers,  Lord 
Holland  took  them  back  to  the  age  of  George  III.  and 
Lord  North.  The  Duke  of  Richmond  told  the  King, 
after  an  audience,  that  "  he  had  said  that  to  him  which, 
if  he  was  a  subject,  he  would  not  scruple  to  call  an 
untruth."  A  discussion  on  women's  works  elicited  the 
opinion  that  there  were  only  three  chefs  d'ceuvre,  those 
of  Madame  de  SeVigne",  Madame  de  Stae'l,  and  Sappho. 
Mrs.  Somerville  was  great  in  the  exact  sciences,  and 
Miss  Austen's  novels  were  excellent.  Lady  Holland 
would  not  hear  of  Madame  de  Stae'l,  and  she  certainly 
seems  outclassed  in  merit  by  her  rivals.  From  women 
writers  the  conversation  passed  to  the  early  English  kings 
and  Klopstock,  the  mystic. 

Two  nights  later  Lord  Melbourne  shone  in  a  disputa- 
tion with  Allen  : — 

"  After  dinner  there  was  much  talk  of  the  Church,  and 
Allen  spoke  of  the  early  reformers,  the  Catharists,  and  how 
the  early  Christians  persecuted  each  other.  Melbourne 
quoted  Vigilantius's  letter  to  Jerome,  and  then  asked  Allen 
about  the  nth  of  Henry  IV.,  an  Act  passed  by  the  Commons 
against  the  Church,  and  referred  to  the  dialogue  between  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of  Ely  at  the 
beginning  of  Shakespeare's  '  Henry  V.,'  which  Lord  Holland 
sent  for  and  read,  Melbourne  knowing  it  all  by  heart,  and 
prompting  all  the  time.  Lingard  says  of  this  statute  that  the 
Commons  proposed  to  the  King  to  commit  an  act  of  spolia- 
tion on  the  clergy,  but  that  the  King  sharply  rebuked  them, 
and  desired  to  hear  no  more  of  the  matter.  About  etymo- 
logies Melbourne  quoted  Tooke's  '  Diversions  of  Purley,' 
which  he  seemed  to  have  at  his  fingers'  ends." 

Less  than  a  week  later  theology  was  again  in  the  ascen- 
dant. Lord  Melbourne,  who,  as  Greville  says,  loved 


HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND   FOX'S   FRIENDS       95 

dashing  opinions,  swore  that  Henry  VIII.  was  the 
greatest  man  that  ever  lived,  and  Allen  declared  that  if 
he  had  not  married  Anne  Boleyn  we  should  have 
continued  Catholics  to  this  day. 

Lord  Holland's  contributions  to  these  debates  would 
have  been  interesting  if  they  had  been  preserved.  If  we 
may  judge  from  a  letter  of  his  to  Blanco  White,  after 
that  theological  rake  had  completed  his  progress  from 
Roman  Catholicism,  through  Anglicanism,  to  the  cold 
shades  of  Unitarianism,  his  opinions  were  practically 
those  of  an  eighteenth-century  Theist,  unable  to  accept 
either  the  Athanasian  interpretation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment or  the  Divinity  of  Christ.  The  atmosphere  of 
Holland  House  was,  however,  essentially  tolerant. 
Among  its  habitues  were  several  clergymen  besides 
Sydney  Smith — for  instance,  Dr.  Shuttleworth,  Warden 
of  New  College  and  Bishop  of  Chichester,  who  as  a 
young  man  had  been  tutor  to  General  Fox. 

The  friends  of  Fox  formed  the  nucleus  of  Holland 
House  society.  Rogers,  it  is  true,  was  an  early  acces- 
sion, and  "Monk"  Lewis  was  another  'man  of  letters 
who  joined  the  circle  before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  But  even  John  Allen,  as  we  have  seen,  as  well 
as  Luttrell,  Sydney  Smith,  Moore,  and  Mackintosh,  were 
later  additions.  General  Fitzpatrick,  on  the  other  hand, 
as  Lord  Holland's  uncle  by  marriage  and  the  most 
intimate  friend  of  Fox,  ranked  as  one  of  the  family. 
Few  men  have  ever  enjoyed  a  higher  social  reputation, 
though  it  had  reached  its  climax  before  the  nineteenth 
century  dawned.  In  his  youth  he  was  the  inseparable 
companion  of  Fox,  a  partner  in  his  ventures  at  New- 
market and  at  cards,  his  fellow-traveller  on  the  Continent, 
and  a  sharer  in  his  taste  for  the  classics,  private  theatricals 


96  THE   HOLLAND  HOUSE   CIRCLE 

and  polite  conversation.  He  was  much  in  the  company 
of  David  Hume,  of  whom  he  used  always  to  speak  as 
"a  delicious  creature"  ;  and  he  remembered  the  tears  of 
gratitude  shed  by  Rousseau  in  his  Chiswick  lodgings 
when  Hume  succeeded  in  recovering  a  favourite  dog 
that  had  been  lost.  His  dandyism  was  of  a  quieter 
kind  than  the  florid  style  affected  by  his  friend  ;  indeed, 
so  exquisite  were  his  manners  considered  that  the  Duke 
of  Queensberry — "  Old  Q,"  no  mean  judge  on  the  point 
— left  him  a  handsome  legacy  as  the  finest  gentleman 
of  the  day.  Fitzpatrick's  progress  in  the  army  was 
chiefly  due  to  his  family  connections.  But  though  he 
strongly  disapproved  of  the  American  War,  he  played  a 
brave  part  when  ordered  to  the  front  with  a  relief  of'his 
battalion. 

It  was  to  please  Fox  that  Fitzpatrick  entered  the  House 
in  1774,  the  Duke  of  Bedford  having  provided  him  with 
a  seat  at  Tavistock ;  and  as  Irish  Secretary  under  the 
Duke  of  Portland  and  Secretary  of  War  in  the  Coalition 
with  Lord  North  he  displayed  ability  and  even  some 
aptitude  for  business.  His  constitutional  indolence, 
however,  got  the  upper  hand ;  as  the  years  went  on  he 
withdrew  from  debate,  though  his  speech  of  1796  in  pro- 
test against  the  imprisonment  of  Lafayette  by  the  Allies 
was  a  parliamentary  event.  If  we  may  judge  from  his 
calling  the  altercation  between  Burke  and  Sheridan, 
which  pre^Jed  the  final  breach  between  the  first  of  the 
pair  and  Fox,  "a  fine  race  for  the  Curragh,"  he  took 
politics  jocularly  even  in  serious  times.  None  the  less 
Fox  poured  out  his  most  private  thoughts  to  his  "  dear 
Dick,"  and  depended  much  on  his  judgment  as  to 
matters  and  men.  Upright  and  devoid  of  enthusiasms,  he 
acted  as  a  drag  on  his  cousin's  impetuosities  ;  a  profound 


HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND   FOX'S   FRIENDS       97 

judge  of  character,  he  diverted  Fox  from  misplaced  trust 
in  various  adventurers,  of  whom  a  journalist  named 
O'Brien  appears  to  have  been  the  most  dangerous. 

"  A  man  of  pleasure,  wit,  eloquence,  all  things,"  wrote 
Byron,  who  only  saw  him  in  his  decline,  of  Fitzpatrick. 
Pleasure  visited  on  him  a  shattered  constitution  which 
rendered  him  a  cipher  when  he  became  Secretary  at 
War,  for  the  second  time,  in  the  Administration  of  1806, 
and  his  political  interests  expired  with  the  death  of  his 
friend.  Of  the  eloquence  of  his  single  great  speech  we 
have  spoken  already.  As  to  his  wit  in  society,  there  is 
Madame  du  Deffand's  opinion  that  he  was  a  cleverer 
talker  than  Fox,  and  Rogers's  that  he  was  nearly  the 
equal  of  Hare.  Adair's  verdict  was  practically  the  same : 
Fitzpatrick  the  most  agreeable  of  all  the  friends  of  Fox, 
Hare  the  most  brilliant.  But  even  in  his  lifetime  his 
reputation  depended  chiefly  on  his  ready  pen.  Horace 
Walpole  circulated  his  riddles,  though  he  neglected  to 
supply  the  answers.  No  album,  not  even  the  immaculate 
Brummell's,  was  complete  without  a  set  of  verses  by 
Fitzpatrick.  He  scarified  his  political  foes  ;  the  youthful 
Canning  for  one,  when  he  decided  on  throwing  in  his  lot 
with  the  Tories  : 

"The  turning  of  coats  so  common  is  grown 

That  no  one  would  think  to  attack  it ; 
But  no  case  until  now  was  so  flagrantly  known 
Of  a  schoolboy  turning  his  jacket." 

He  extolled  his  friends,  as  in  his  well-known,  though  not 
very  appropriate,  lines  on  Nollekens's  bust  of  Fox  : 

"A  Patriot's  even  course  he  steer'd 

Midst  Faction's  wildest  storms  unmov'd, 
By  all  who  mark'd  his  Mind,  rever'd  ; 

By  all  who  knew  his  Heart,  belov'd." 
H 


98  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

Lord  Holland's  coming  of  age  was  celebrated,  too,  by 
some  neat  verses  written  for  the  temple  built  by  Fox  at 
St.  Anne's  Hill.  But  the  savour  has  inevitably  departed 
from  much  that  Fitzpatrick  wrote.  "Dorinda,  a  Town 
Eclogue,"  is  a  facile,  though  fairly  spirited,  account  of 
the  boredom  endured  by  fine  ladies  during  their  banish- 
ment to  the  country  at  the  close  of  the  season.  He 
put  his  talents  to  better  purpose  in  the  "Rolliad," 
the  pungent  satire  composed  by  himself,  George  Ellis, 
Sheridan's  friend  Richardson,  and  others  on  the  Tory 
majority  of  squires,  nabobs,  and  City  aldermen  who 
supported  Pitt,  and  more  particularly  on  Mr.  Rolle, 
the  unsophisticated  Devonshire  member,  whose  most 
important  contributions  to  debate  took  the  form  of 
trying  to  cough  down  Burke.  Ellis  contributed  the 
wittiest  pieces,  such  as  the  burlesque  of  the  Rolle  pedigree 
at  the  commencement  and  the  happy  attack  on  the 
young  Prime  Minister,  beginning — 

"  Pert  without  fire,  without  experience,  sage." 

But  the  twelfth  number,  which  Lord  John  Russell 
identifies  as  Fitzpatrick's,  fully  sustains  the  level  of  the 
whole,  as  in  its  description  of  Mr.  Rolle,  who — 

"  Majestic  sits,  and  hears,  devoid  of  dread, 
The  dire  Phillippicks  whizzing  round  his  head. 
Your  venom'd  shafts,  ye  sons  of  Faction,  spare  : 
However  keen,  ye  cannot  enter  there." 

Alderman  Watson,  whose  leg  had  been  bitten  off  by  a 
shark,  is  thus  commemorated  : 


HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND   FOX'S   FRIENDS      99 

" '  One  moment's  time  might  I  presume  to  beg  ! ' 
Cries  modest  Watson,  on  his  wooden  leg  ; 
That  leg,  in  which  such  wondrous  art  is  shown, 
It  almost  seems  to  serve  him  like  his  own. 
Oh  !  had  the  monster,   who  for  breakfast  eat 
That  luckless   limb,  his  nobler  noddle  met, 
The  best  of  workmen,  nor  the  best  of  wood, 
Had  scarce  supply'd  him  with  a  head  so  good." 

About  the  time  that  Lord  Holland  was  gathering 
his  friends  round  him,  Canning  satirised  the  Bench  of 
Wit  at  Brooks's  : 

"Where  Hare,  Chief  Justice,  frames  the  stern  decree, 
While  with  their  learned  Brother  sages  three, 
Fitzpatrick,  Townshend,  Sheridan,   agree." 

Of  them,  James  Hare — "  the  Hare  of  many  friends  "  as 
the  Duchess  of  Gordon  called  him — made  his  wit  tell 
by  his  manner  of  uttering  it.  Fox,  Rogers  relates,  was 
once  sitting  at  Brooks's  in  a  very  moody  manner,  having 
lost  a  considerable  sum  at  cards,  and  was  indolently 
moving  a  pen  backwards  and  forwards  over  a  sheet  of 
paper.  "  What  is  he  drawing  ?  "  said  some  one  to  Hare. 
"  Anything  but  a  draft,"  was  the  reply.  Again,  when 
Sheridan,  in  the  course  of  his  speech  against  the  Union, 
boasted  that  he  was  a  descendant  of  the  Irish  kings  and 
"  an  old  Milesian,"  Hare  readily  remarked  that  he 
evidently  alluded  to  his  connection  with  Miles's 
gambling-house.  "  He  was  one  of  those  men,"  wrote 
Lord  John  Russell  in  a  note  to  Moore's  diary,  "  who 
glittered  with  wit  and  humour  in  their  day,  but  whose 
fame  caret  vale  sacro."  He  also  characterised  Hare's 
wit  as  being,  like  Sydney  Smith's,  of  the  sparkling  order 


ioo  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

in  contrast  to  Talleyrand's  and  Sheridan's,  which  was 
dry. 

Hare  was,  in  short,  a  striking  instance  of  how  far 
agreeable  manners  and  a  ready  tongue  could  carry  a 
person  of  obscure  origin  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
son  of  an  apothecary,  who  sent  him  to  Eton,  he  was 
a  poor  man  throughout  his  life.  Hare  was  often  on  the 
lookout  for  employment,  but  Fox  was  only  able  to  help 
him  during  the  brief  period  (October,  1779,  to  January, 
1782)  when  he  served  as  British  Minister  at  Warsaw. 
The  story  of  his  failure  in  the  House  is  familiar.  "  Wait 
till  you  hear  Hare,"  said  Fox  when  receiving  congratula- 
tions on  his  maiden  speech.  The  House  did  hear  Hare, 
when  he  rose  to  defend  his  friend,  but  with  such  impetu- 
osity that  rage  almost  choked  his  utterance.  Hare,  there- 
fore, was  reduced  to  become  the  oracle  of  Brooks's,  and 
to  inspire  the  young  Whigs  with  the  parliamentary 
courage  which  Nature  had  denied  him.  Behind  the 
scenes  he  counted  for  much.  His  association  with 
Holland  House  in  the  days  of  the  third  Lord  Holland 
cannot  have  been  a  very  long  one,  for  when  Fox  visited 
the  French  capital  in  1802  he  found  Hare  there  a  hope- 
less invalid,  and  two  years  later  the  end  came  at  Bath. 

Lord  John  Townshend  survived  Fox  many  years, 
and  died  in  1833.  In  the  House  he  was  a  characteristic 
specimen  of  the  aristocratic  and  silent  Whig  who  could 
be  trusted  to  stand  by  his  party  in  troublous  times.  In 
private  life  Jack  Townshend,  as  became  a  member  of  his 
family,  was  a  merry  man,  who  called  a  spade  a  spade  and 
Sheridan  a  liar.  As  a  repository  of  Whig  tradition,  it 
was  to  him  that  Lord  Holland  applied  for  information 
about  Sir  Robert  Adair's  visit  to  St.  Petersburg  on  the 
outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution,  which  the  Tories 


DIVERSITY  OF  CALIF 

HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND   FOX'S   FRIENDS  'IOT 

asserted  to  have  been  due  to  his  chief's  desire  to  thwart 
the  foreign  policy  of  Pitt.  Eighteenth-century  diaries 
frequently  allude  to  Lord  John  Townshend  in  association 
with  Dudley  North,  another  social  wit  who  failed  to  make 
a  figure  in  the  House,  but  who  is  dimly  remembered  as 
a  mourner  at  the  funerals  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  and 
Burke,  and  as  one  of  the  daring  few  who  ventured  to 
question  Sir  Philip  Francis  on  the  authorship  of  "Junius." 
Adair,  who  lived  on  until  1855,  was  actually  the  last 
survivor  of  Fox's  friends.  Moore's  diary  records  him  as 
dining  frequently  at  Holland  House  in  the  year  1825, 
and  as  telling  on  one  occasion  a  capital  story  about  a 
peer  who  kept  on  saying  in  one  of  his  speeches,  "  I  ask 
myself  so  and  so."  "  Yes,"  said  Lord  Ellenborough, 
"  and  a  damned  silly  answer  you'll  get."  By  that  time  he 
had  come  to  be  in  great  request  as  giving  what  Moore 
calls  an  agreeable  whiff  of  the  days  of  Fox,  Tickell,  and 
Sheridan.  He  might  also  consider  himself  as  something 
of  a  martyr  to  the  Whig  cause.  His  intimacy  with  Fox 
had  earned  him  in  1728  unmerciful  roasting  from  the 
Anti-Jacobin.  He  was  the  Rogero  of  the  "  Rovers"  who 
loved  "  sweet,  sweet  Matilda  Pottingen "  ;  he  was  the 
Bobba-dara-adul-phoola  of  the  satire  on  Sir  John 
Sinclair's  Association  for  Promoting  the  Discovery  of 
the  Interior  Parts  of  Africa,  and  his  visit  to  the  Court  of 
the  Empress  Catherine  was  quizzed  in  "  A  Bit  of  an  Ode 
to  Mr.  Fox"  as  well  as  in  the  lines  : 

u  Or  is  it  He — the  Youth  whose  daring  Soul 
With  Half  a  Mission  sought  the  Frozen  Pole  ; 
And  then,  returning  from  th*   unfinish'd  work, 
Wrote  Half  a  Letter — to  demolish  Burke  ? * 

1  The  real  title  was  "  Part  of  a  Letter  from  Robert  Adair  to  C.  J. 
Fox,  occasioned  by  Mr.  Burke's  mention  of  Lord  Keppel  in  a  recent 
Publication." 


102  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

Adair's  friendship  for  Fox,  which  began  before  he  was 
twenty,  constituted  his  chief,  if  not  his  only  offence  in  the 
eyes  of  Canning  and  his  associates.  His  journey  abroad, 
mysterious  though  it  was,  does  not  really  seem  to  have 
been  a  mission  of  anti-patriotic  intrigue.  In  after  years 
Adair  asserted  that  he  wished  to  qualify  himself  for 
diplomatic  employment.  As  young  men  will,  he  aired 
his  Whiggism  by  rudeness  to  the  British  Minister  at 
St.  Petersburg,  while  his  inexperience  contended  on 
unequal  terms  with  the  consummate  cunning  of  the 
Empress  Catherine.  When  his  knowledge  had  hardened, 
Fox  employed  him,  in  1806,  on  a  mission  to  warn  the 
Austrian  Government  against  the  aggressive  intentions  of 
Napoleon.  The  Court  of  Vienna  objected  to  him  as  not 
being  of  a  sufficiently  good  family  until  some  one, 
remembering  that  he  was  the  son  of  a  famous  surgeon, 
answered,  "  Mais  c'est  le  fils  du  plus  grand  saigneur 
de  1' Europe."  He  was  avenged  of  the  Anti- Jacobin 
on  his  return,  for  Canning,  recognising  his  ability, 
despatched  him  to  Constantinople  to  renew  relations 
with  the  Porte.  Diplomatically  the  mission  was  a  success, 
socially  it  is  remembered  for  the  quiet  firmness  with 
which  Adair  suppressed  Lord  Byron's  attempt  to  take 
precedence  at  some  reception  of  various  dignified 
Ambassadors,  a  lesson  which  the  poet  at  first  resented 
and  afterwards  acknowledged  to  be  just. 

Adair's  greatest  service  to  his  country  consisted  in  the 
training  of  young  Stratford  Canning,  afterwards  Lord 
Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  who,  as  an  undergraduate- 
diplomatist,  accompanied  him  to  Constantinople.  With 
Napoleon  triumphant  in  Europe,  he  had  a  most  difficult 
task,  but,  as  his  subordinate  observed,  he  brought  to  it "  a 
conscientious  zeal  and  a  liberal  intelligence,  accompanied 


HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND   FOX'S   FRIENDS     103 

by  an  amount  of  strenuous  practical  upright  ability  much 
above  par."  His  mission  came  to  an  end  in  July,  1810  ; 
and  he  left  Canning,  aged  twenty-four,  behind  him  as 
Minister  Plenipotentiary.  Adair's  last  mission  abroad 
was  in  1831,  when  Lord  Palmerston  sent  him  to  the 
Netherlands,  where  he  prevented  a  general  war  between 
the  Dutch  and  Belgian  troops.  When  he  died  in 
October,  1855,  at  the  age  of  ninety-two,  his  pupil, 
become  Lord  Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  and  within  a  year  of 
seventy,  mourned  him  with  tears,  as  he  used  to  mourn 
Fox.  It  was  while  walking  through  Chiswick  House 
that  Adair  asked  Rogers  in  which  room  it  was  that  Fox 
had  died.  "In  this  very  room,"  was  the  answer,  and 
Adair  burst  into  tears.  That  tribute  of  affection,  notes 
Macaulay,  was  paid  to  Fox  but  not  to  Byron.  Allowance 
should  also  be  made,  however,  for  the  propensity  to 
conceal  the  natural  tearful  man,  which  increased  with  the 
advance  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Adair  was  fond  of  telling  how  Sheridan  once  said,  on 
entering  a  room,  "  By  the  silence  that  prevails,  I  conclude 
Lauderdale  has  been  cutting  a  joke."  On  another 
occasion  he  is  supposed  to  have  answered  the  Earl's 
request  for  permission  to  repeat  one  of  his  stories  with, 
"  I  must  be  careful  what  I  say,  for  a  joke  in  your  mouth 
is  no  laughing  matter."  Lord  Lauderdale  was  a  typical 
Scot  in  his  lack  of  humour,  his  broad  accent,  and  his 
choleric  temper.  His  violence  of  language  twice  led  to 
challenges ;  and  he  fought  a  bloodless  duel,  Fox  acting 
as  his  second,  with  Benedict  Arnold,  the  American 
renegade  soldier.  In  his  early  days,  as  member  for 
Newport,  Cornwall,  he  was  an  extravagant  opponent 
of  the  American  War,  and  later  an  out-and-out  supporter 
of  the  East  India  Bill  and  the  impeachment  of  Warren 


io4  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Hastings.  Election  as  a  Scottish  representative  peer, 
after  the  death  of  his  father  in  1789,  was  far  from 
tranquilising  that  restless  spirit.  On  the  contrary,  he 
scandalised  the  House  of  Lords  by  appearing  in  the 
"  rough  costume  of  Jacobinism,"  and,  during  a  visit  to 
Paris,  held  familiar  intercourse  with  Brissot  and  other 
political  leaders.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Society  of  the  Friends  of  the  People,  and  though  Francis, 
Duke  of  Bedford,  began  by  objecting  to  that  imitation  of 
the  French  clubs,  Lauderdale  was  not  content  until 
he  had  dragged  him  into  revolutionary  politics.  He  was, 
in  short,  among  the  most  indiscreet  of  Fox's  supporters. 
In  rasping  and  ungrammatical  Scotch  he  denounced  the 
hostilities  with  France,  brought  forward  a  motion  in 
favour  of  peace  which  received  only  eight  votes,  and  was 
clamorous  against  the  Habeas  Corpus  Suspension  and 
Treasonable  Practices  Bill.  His  fellow-peers  avenged 
themselves  by  declining  to  re-elect  him,  whereupon  Lord 
Lauderdale  seems  to  have  contemplated  ridding  himself 
of  his  nobility. 

Violent  Whig  though  Lord  Lauderdale  may  have  been, 
he  was  unselfish.  No  room  could  be  found  for  him  in 
the  Grenville  and  Fox  Administration.  "  It  is  a  damned 
thing,"  said  Fox,  "  but  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  I  saw 
it  would  not  do,  and  one  must  not  be  impatient."  Lord 
Lauderdale  took  his  exclusion  in  perfect  temper,  and 
accepted  the  office  of  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  of  Scot- 
land, a  mere  sinecure,  to  show  that  he  was  not  out  of 
humour.  Another  disappointment  awaited  him  when 
the  Directors  of  the  East  India  Company  declined  to 
accept  him  as  Governor-General,  but  he  cheerily  relin- 
quished the  object  on  which  he  had  set  his  heart.  He 
accepted,  instead,  the  position  of  joint-commissioner,  to 


HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND   FOX'S  FRIENDS     105 

negotiate  peace  with  France,  with  Lord  Yarmouth  as 
a  singularly  incompetent  colleague.  The  mission  was, 
of  course,  a  failure ;  but  Lord  Lauderdale,  though  dis- 
putatious in  form,  was  conciliatory  in  substance.  His 
tenacity  about  the  uti  possidetis,  and  his  frequent  recur- 
rence to  that  phrase,  led  Napoleon  to  reproach  him  with 
an  adherence  to  "  des  formules  Latines,"  which,  com- 
mented Lord  Holland,  "to  those  well  acquainted  with 
the  nature  of  Lauderdale's  acquirements  in  classical 
phraseology,  was  diverting  enough." 

To  all  appearance  Lauderdale's  Whiggism  suffered 
no  abatement  for  several  years  after  the  death  of  Fox. 
The  town  rang  with  his  speech  in  support  of  Queen 
Caroline  ;  and  Lady  Granville,  who  met  him  at  Holland 
House  during  the  trial,  relates  how  he  and  Brougham 
compared  the  abuse  they  received  in  the  shape  of  anony- 
mous correspondence.  She  wondered  if  it  was  the 
extreme  of  honesty,  or  its  opposite,  that  made  him 
always  hold  his  ground  on  every  occasion.  The  doubt 
was  justified  by  events,  for  his  interests  as  a  landlord 
had  already  made  him  the  open  champion  of  the  restric- 
tive Corn  Law  passed  by  the  Liverpool  Government,  and 
by  1825  he  was  regarded  as  the  confidant  and  adviser 
of  the  Cabinet.  About  that  time,  when  the  King's 
reigning  favourite  went  to  hear  Edward  Irving,  he 
declared,  with  pawky  humour,  that  the  preacher  had 
talked  not  of  the  heavenly  mansions,  but  of  the  heavenly 
Pavilion.  Lord  Lauderdale's  last  public  appearance  was 
as  an  opponent  of  the  Reform  Bill ;  and  so  skilful  was 
the  manoeuvring  of  the  "  cunning  old  renegade  " — the 
expression  is  Lord  Cockburn's — that  out  of  the  sixteen 
Scottish  representative  peers,  twelve  voted  with  the 
Opposition.  It  was  a  strange  political  end  for  one  of 


io6  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

whom  Fox  had  said,  "  I  wonder  how  the  world  went  on 
when  there  was  no  Lauderdale  to  help  it,  or  what  will 
become  of  it  when  he  leaves  it." 

Charles,  third  Earl  Stanhope,  was  a  more  consider- 
able man  than  this  pragmatic  Scot.  As  the  brother-in- 
law  of  Pitt,  he  gave  that  statesman  vigorous  support  in 
the  days  when  he  was  a  parliamentary  reformer ;  and, 
while  still  Lord  Mahon  and  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  he  vehemently  attacked  the  Coalition  and  the 
East  India  Bill.  But  the  French  Revolution  completed 
an  estrangement  that  the  institution  of  the  sinking  fund 
had  begun.  "  Citizen "  Stanhope  flung  himself  into 
democratic  extravagance  ;  he  became  chairman  of  the 
Revolution  Society,  and  fathered  some  of  its  most  in- 
expedient addresses  of  congratulation  to  the  French 
Assembly.  From  his  father  and  mother  he  had  in- 
herited a  love  of  Liberty  with  a  large  L,  and  education 
at  Geneva  had  perfected  that  disposition.  His  principles 
deserted  him,  however,  when  his  third  daughter  eloped 
with  the  family  apothecary,  and  Gillray  saw  his  chance 
and  took  it  in  the  caricature  "  Democratic  Levelling  : 
Alliance  a  la  Fran$aise ;  the  Union  of  the  Coronet  and 
Clyster-pipe." 

Lord  Stanhope's  opposition  to  the  war  with  France 
left  him,  on  a  famous  occasion,  January  6,  1795,  in  a 
minority  of  one.  After  a  five  years'  secession  from  Par- 
liament, he  reappeared  to  propose  peace  with  the  enemy, 
and  secured  a  solitary  supporter,  as  eccentric  as  himself, 
in  Lord  Camelford.  Impervious  to  criticism,  given  to 
making  mischief,  coarse  in  his  anecdotes  and  ungainly 
in  his  gestures,  he  was  more  at  home  at  the  "  Crown  and 
Anchor  "  than  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Yet  the  Peers 
laughed  with  him,  when  they  were  not  laughing  at  him, 


HOLLAND   HOUSE  AND   FOX'S   FRIENDS    107 

and  he  was  missed  when  he  succumbed  to  dropsy  in  the 
winter  of  1816.  Lord  Stanhope  was,  in  short,  an  irre- 
sponsible genius,  who  handed  on  his  contempt  for 
conventionality,  though  in  a  nobler  form,  to  his  daughter, 
Lady  Hester,  the  mystic  of  Mount  Lebanon,  whom 
Lamartine  and  Kinglake  have  immortalised. 

Stanhope's  devotion  to  science  was  marked  by  the 
same  perverse  ingenuity  as  his  politics,  though  he  gene- 
rously placed  his  inventions  at  the  public  disposal,  with- 
out a  thought  of  private  gain.  He  effected  a  substantial 
advance  in  stereotyping,  and  a  microscopic  lens  still 
bears  his  name.  But  his  attempts  to  apply  steam  to 
land  and  water  carriage  were  failures,  despite  their 
cleverness.  A  vehicle  tried  on  the  road  between  Calais 
and  Boulogne,  some  ten  years  before  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  ran  up  hill  with  extraordinary 
rapidity,  went  along  with  some  difficulty  on  the  level, 
and  stopped  at  every  incline.  In  1792  he  built  a  steam 
collier  of  200  tons  which,  according  to  Lord  Hol- 
land, would  have  consumed  its  cargo  before  it  reached 
its  destination ;  nor  were  his  "  ambi-navigator "  and 
other  experiments  more  successful.  It  is  worth  mention 
that  the  friendship  of  Holland  House  descended  to 
Citizen  Stanhope's  grandson,  the  historian,  who,  as  Lord 
Mahon,  had  already  made  a  reputation  by  his  careful 
and  impartial  handling  of  the  events  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  the  period  under  my  survey  came  to  a 
close.  His  exertions  to  secure  literary  copyright  for 
authorship  and  his  foundation  of  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery  were  later. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
MORE    FRIENDS    OF    FOX 

The  Anti-Jacobin  on  Erskine — A  flippant  conversationalist — 
"  Trial  by  jury" — Impromptu  verse — Erskine's  eloquence — As  Lord 
Chancellor — A  graceless  old  age — Sheridan  and  the  Whigs — His 
mystifications — Carlton  House  politics — An  isolated  politician — 
Drury  Lane — Sheridan's  last  days — Sheridan  in  society — Sir  Philip 
Francis  and  the  Prince — A  quarrel  with  Fox — "  Junius  Identified  " 
— Lord  Thurlow — An  extinguished  politician — Lord  Macartney — 
"Solomon  in  all  his  glory"— Sir  Gilbert  Elliot— The  Portland 
Whigs — The  Grenvilles  and  the  Whigs — Lord  Minto  in  India — 
Georgiana,  Duchess  of  Devonshire — The  "  Passage  of  the  Mountain 
of  St.  Gothard." 

ERSKINE  was  a  characteristic  member  of  the  Fox 
band,  brilliant  in  his  abilities,  reckless  in  his  wit, 
and  prodigal  with  his  cash.    His  ingenuous  egotism 
has  almost   passed    into   a   proverb.     The   Anti-Jacobin 
parodied  his  addiction  to  oratorical  autobiography  with 
inimitable  humour  in  the  second  part  of  the  "  Meeting 
of  the  Friends  of  Freedom  "  : 

"  Mr.  Erskine  concluded  by  recapitulating,  in  a  strain  of 
agonising  and  impressive  eloquence,  the  several  more  promi- 
nent heads  of  his  Speech.  He  had  been  a  Soldier  and  a 
Sailor,  and  had  a  Son  at  Winchester  School ;  he  had  been 
called  by  Special  Retainers,  during  the  Summer,  into  many 
different  and  distant  parts  of  the  Country — travelling  chiefly 

108 


MORE   FRIENDS  OF   FOX  109 

in  Post-chaises.  He  felt  himself  called  upon  to  declare  that 
his  poor  faculties  were  at  the  service  of  his  Country — of  the 
free  and  enlightened  part  of  it,  at  least.  He  stood  here  as 
a  Man — He  stood  in  the  Eye,  and  indeed  in  the  Hand  of 
God — to  whom  (in  the  presence  of  the  Company  and 
Waiters)  he  solemnly  appealed.  He  was  of  Noble — perhaps 
Royal  Blood — He  had  a  house  at  Hampstead — was  con- 
vinced of  the  necessity  of  a  thorough  and  radical  Reform. 
His  Pamphlets  had  gone  through  Thirty  Editions — skipping 
alternately  the  odd  and  even  numbers — he  loved  the  Consti- 
tution, to  which  he  would  cling  and  grapple — And  he  was 
cloathed  with  the  infirmities  of  man's  nature." 

Vanity,  bordering  on  insanity,  was  a  marked  feature 
in  the  Erskine  family,  but,  added  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  his 
diary,  "they  all  had  wit."  Of  the  three  brothers,  the 
Earl  of  Buchan's  was  "  crackbrained,  and  somewhat 
caustic  ;  Henry's  was  of  the  very  kindest,  best-humoured, 
and  gayest  sort  that  ever  cheered  society  ;  that  of  Lord 
Erskine  was  moody  and  muddish.  But  I  never  saw  him 
in  his  best  days."  The  reservation  is  important.  The 
decline  of  Erskine  was  as  melancholy  as  that  of  Sheridan. 
But,  even  when  his  triumphs  at  the  Bar  lay  many  years 
behind  him,  Rogers  heard  him  tell  stories  of  his  past  life 
in  the  navy  and  army — of  a  sensational  reprieve  of  a 
soldier  when  he  was  kneeling  to  receive  the  fatal  shot 
among  them — and  of  his  early  struggles  in  the  law,  with 
point  and  dramatic  effect.  He  ridiculed  the  sham  erudi- 
tion of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  calling  him,  out  of  "  The 
Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  a  "cosmogony  man,"  for  he  had 
but  two  classical  quotations — one  from  Homer,  and  one 
from  Virgil — which  he  never  failed  to  sport  when  there 
was  any  opportunity  of  introducing  them.  Excellent,  too, 
his  remark,  when  he  heard  that  somebody  had  died 
worth  two  hundred  thousand  pounds,  "  Well,  that's  a 


no  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

very  pretty  sum  to  begin  the  next  world  with."  Then 
there  is  his  famous  answer  to  a  begging-letter  :  "  Sir, 
I  feel  much  honoured  by  your  application  to  me,  and 
I  beg  to  subscribe" — here  the  reader  had  to  turn  over 
the  leaf — "myself  your  very  obedient  servant."1  His 
talk  was  flippant,  and  sometimes  unprintable  ;  but  he 
wounded  no  man's  feelings,  and  he  never  envied  the  suc- 
cess of  others.  In  his  old  age  Byron  met  him,  and 
described  him  as  "good,  but  intolerable." 

"  He  jested,  he  talked,  he  did  everything  admirably,  but 
then  he  would  be  applauded  for  the  same  thing  twice  over. 
He  would  read  his  own  verses,  and  tell  his  own  stories  again 
and  again — and  then  Trial  by  Jury  !  I  almost  wished  it 
abolished,  for  I  sat  next  him  at  dinner.  As  I  had  read  all 
his  published  speeches,  there  was  no  occasion  to  repeat 
them  to  me." 

Lord  Campbell,  in  his  "  Life  of  Lord  Erskine,"  gives 
numerous  specimens  of  puns,  mostly  legal,  and  of  his 
impromptu  verse.  His  best  lines  were  taken  from  his 
notebook  by  Lord  Holland,  who  observed  him  writing 
diligently  while  Plumer,  a  tedious  counsel,  was  keeping 
him  in  court  when  he  ought  to  have  been  dining  with 
the  Lord  Mayor  : 

I 
u  Oh  that  thy  cursed  balderdash 

Were  swiftly  changed  to  callipash  ! 
Thy  bands  so  stiff  and  snug  toupee 
Corrected  were  to  callipee  ; 
That  since  I  can  nor  dine  nor  sup, 
I  might  arise  to  eat  thee  up  ! " 

1  Lord  Campbell,  in  his  "  Lives  of  the  Chancellors,"  gives  a 
different  version  of  this  story,  and  makes  Erskine's  letter  an  answer 
to  Sir  John  Sinclair,  who  proposed  that  a  testimonial  should  be 
presented  to  himself  by  the  British  nation. 


MORE   FRIENDS  OF   FOX  in 

The  appearance  and  phraseology  of  George  III.  were 
thus  ridiculed  by  his  Chancellor  : 

"  I  may  not  do  right,  though  I  ne'er  can  do  wrong  ; 
I  never  can  die,  though  I  may  not  live  long ; 
My  jowl  it  is  purple,  my  head  it  is  fat — 
Come,  riddle  my  riddle.    What  is  it?  What?  What?" 

"Nostrae  eloquentiae  forensis  facile  princeps"  was 
inscribed  on  Nollekens's  bust  of  Erskine  at  Holland 
House.  He  was  undoubtedly  the  first  of  British  advo- 
cates ;  pure  in  style,  though  he  had  learnt  English  "  like 
a  foreign  language  "  ;  gifted  with  a  musical  voice,  apter, 
as  Brougham  thought,  to  express  pathos  than  indigna- 
tion ;  devoted  to  his  client's  cause,  always  on  the  alert 
and  always  courteous.  His  speeches  for  the  defendants 
in  the  State  trials  of  1794,  Home  Tooke,  Hardy,  and 
Thelwall,  raised  him  to  the  height  of  his  renown.  Dis- 
figured though  they  are  by  appeals  to  the  Creator,  they 
remain  masterpieces  of  passionate  pleading  and  declama- 
tory invective,  alike  admirable  in  exposition  of  the  law 
of  treason  and  exposure  of  a  Government  informer. 
It  was  hardly  the  case  that,  had  Erskine  failed,  Pitt 
would  have  proceeded  to  proscribe  those  of  Liberal 
opinions,  and  to  institute  a  White  Terror.  The  ac- 
quittals destroyed,  nevertheless,  the  argument  for  revo- 
lution, even  when,  as  in  the  case  of  William  Stone,  the 
evidence  pointed  to  approval  and,  perhaps,  to  actual 
incitement,  of  a  French  invasion. 

Erskine  failed  in  the  House,  and  Sheridan  bluntly 
supplied  him  with  the  reason.  "  I'll  tell  you  how  it 
happens  ;  you  are  afraid  of  Pitt,  and  that  is  the  flabby 
part  of  your  character."  Occasionally  he  tried  to  hide 
his  want  of  confidence  under  abuse,  but  his  frothy 


H2  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

diatribes  dashed  in  vain  against  the  calm  scorn  of  the 
Prime  Minister.  Erskine  ranks,  in  fact,  with  the  French- 
man, Berryer,  as  a  supreme  advocate  and  nothing  more. 
"  Etes-vous  l£giste  ? "  was  the  mortifying  question  of 
Napoleon,  to  whom  he  was  introduced  by  his  official 
title  as  Chancellor  to  the  Prince  of  Wales.  His  accept- 
ance of  the  Great  Seal  in  the  Ministry  of  Fox  and 
Grenville  was  severely  judged  by  the  virtuous  Romilly, 
to  whom  he  confessed  his  unfitness  for  the  office.  His 
shrewdness  preserved  him,  however,  from  grave  mis- 
takes, and  he  presided  with  dignified  impartiality  at 
the  trial  of  Lord  Melville.  But  his  innate  levity  de- 
prived him  of  any  weight  in  the  Cabinet.  A  more 
incongruous  adviser  than  Erskine  when,  after  the 
"  Delicate  Investigation  "  of  1806,  it  fell  to  him  to 
admonish  the  Princess  of  Wales  on  her  conduct,  can- 
not be  conceived,  and  he  appears  to  have  undertaken 
the  mission  in  the  spirit  of  Pantagruel.  As  the 
"  Talents "  Administration  was  tottering  to  its  fall, 
Erskine  tried  to  pursue  a  devious  course  of  his  own. 
Such  was  his  confidence  in  his  powers  of  persuasion 
that  he  imagined  himself,  after  a  long  audience,  to 
have  overcome  the  indomitable  will  of  George  III. 
"  You  are  an  honest  man,  my  lord,  and  I  am  very 
much  obliged  to  you,"  was  the  regal  reply  to  a  prolix 
harangue.  His  embarrassed  circumstances  explained, 
without  excusing,  his  irregular  conduct ;  and  he  availed 
himself  of  a  delay  in  resigning  the  seals,  due  to  various 
cases  on  which  he  had  to  deliver  judgment,  to  job  his 
son-in-law  into  a  mastership  in  Chancery.  Romilly 
considered  that,  should  the  Whigs  return  to  office, 
Erskine  would  not  be  Chancellor,  "since  his  incapacity 
for  the  office  was  too  forcibly  and  too  generally  felt." 


MORE   FRIENDS  OF   FOX  113 

Erskine's  last  years,  it  must  be  confessed,  were 
graceless.  The  £200,000  he  laboriously  accumulated 
at  the  Bar  vanished  through  the  simple  process  of 
buying  stock  in  the  dearest  and  selling  it  in  the 
cheapest  market.  A  thriftless  Scot,  that  rare  bird,  he 
gave  gay  parties  at  Evergreen  Hall,  Hampstead,  the 
guests  at  what  Romilly  called  a  great  Opposition  dinner 
including  Lord  Holland,  and  sunk  large  sums  in  a 
Sussex  estate  which  produced  nothing  but  broom. 
He  lived  the  idle  life  of  a  man  about  town,  and 
haunted  the  Courts  at  Westminster,  regretting  that  he 
had  ever  left  the  Bar.  Finally  it  came  to  Arabella 
Row,  Pimlico,  a  Gretna  Green  marriage,  and  indigence. 
Yet  at  times  his  voice  was  raised  in  worthy  causes,  such 
as  his  own  Bill  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals, 
a  proposal  that  lay  near  the  heart  of  a  man  who  had 
pet  dogs,  a  pet  goose,  a  pet  macaw,  and  even  pet  leeches, 
called  Home  and  Cline,  after  the  celebrated  surgeons. 
Nor  did  a  long  attachment  to  George  IV.  deter  him 
exhausting  his  enfeebled  constitution  in  chivalrous  efforts 
to  secure  a  fair  trial  for  Queen  Caroline. 

Sheridan  preceded  Erskine  to  the  tomb  by  some  seven 
years,  having  also  outlived  his  reputation.  He  did  not 
join  the  Holland  House  circle  until  long  after  "The 
Rivals,"  "The  School  for  Scandal,"  and  "The  Critic" 
had  been  written  and  the  Begum  Speeches  had  been 
delivered.  The  turning-point  in  his  career  may  be  con- 
sidered to  have  occurred  in  1791,  when  the  rebuilding 
of  Drury  Lane  Theatre  plunged  him  into  serious  financial 
embarrassment,  followed  in  the  following  year  bv  the 
death  of  his  beautiful  and  accomplished  first  wife,  the 
St.  Cecilia  of  Reynolds's  brush.  Nature  having  denied 
method  to  Sheridan,  he  lost  in  his  wife  the  steadying 


H4  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

and  stimulating  influence  of  his  career.  By  that  time, 
too,  the  quarrel  between  Fox  and  Burke — a  dispute 
which  Sheridan  did  much  to  acerbate — had  riven  the 
Whig  party  in  twain.  It  was  Sheridan's  misfortune  to 
follow  the  former,  while  agreeing  with  the  latter  in  his 
repudiation  of  revolutionary  excess.  He  had  the  sagacity 
to  disapprove  of  the  secession  of  Fox  and  his  friends 
from  Parliament,  and  they  suspected  him  of  speculating 
on  their  leader's  retirement  into  private  life,  when  the 
much-coveted  seat  at  Westminster  would  fall  vacant. 

Sheridan  was  undoubtedly  distrusted,  and  his  descend- 
ant, the  late  Lord  Dufferin,  did  not  completely  account 
for  the  suspicion  with  which  he  was  regarded  by  setting 
it  down  to  his  poverty  and  Irish  origin.  He  carried  the 
habit  of  mystification,  which  in  private  life  took  the 
form  of  practical  jokes,  into  his  political  negotiations, 
and  loved  to  create  complications,  trusting  to  his  mother- 
wit  to  extricate  him.  Fox,  who  was  simplicity  itself,  was 
always  thrown  out  by  the  artificiality  of  his  character. 
He  used  without  scruple,  too,  the  materials  for  oratory 
which  his  friends  were  weak  enough  to  show  to  him, 
and  stole  their  good  things,  such  as  Sir  Philip  Francis's 
description  of  the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  "  a  peace  of  which 
everybody  is  glad,  and  nobody  proud."  His  tricks 
behind  the  scenes  stood  in  strong  contrast  with  his 
integrity  when  he  faced  the  footlights.  On  a  general 
view  of  his  public  life,  he  may  be  pronounced  to  have 
spoken  no  more  than  the  truth  when  he  said  to  the 
Prime  Minister  of  the  day,  "  My  visits  to  you  may 
possibly  be  misunderstood  by  my  friends,  but  I  hope 
you  know,  Mr.  Addington,  that  I  have  an  unpurchasable 
mind." 
It  was  after  the  death  of  Fox  that  Sheridan's  relations 


MORE   FRIENDS  OF  FOX  115 

with  the  Whig  leaders  became  distant  to  the  verge  of 
open  enmity.  The  haughty  Grenville  disliked  him,  and, 
even  while  he  was  still  holding  the  post  of  Treasurer  of 
the  Navy — a  poor  reward  surely  for  all  his  services  ! — 
wished  that  he  might  be  excluded  from  their  confidences. 
Now,  Sheridan  belonged  to  the  class  of  man  that  more 
readily  forgives  injuries  than  slights.  His  resentment 
became  a  matter  of  grave  importance  when  the  King's 
insanity  became  permanent,  and  the  Prince,  to  whom  he 
had  devoted  himself  with  romantic  enthusiasm,  assumed 
the  Regency.  Sheridan  thought  he  could  manage  that 
selfish  and  astute  individual,  whom  he  complimented 
with  the  possession  of  a  heart  and  understanding 
"beyond  all,  I  believe,  that  ever  stood  in  rank  and 
high  relation  to  society,"  adding,  with  a  touch  of  Joseph 
Surface,  "  I  am  no  flatterer,  and  I  never  found  that  to 
become  one  was  the  road  to  your  real  regard."  He 
greatly  overrated  his  influence  ;  still,  in  1810  Carlton 
House  politics,  with  Lord  Moira  as  an  amusing  marplot, 
acquired  an  importance  which  had  not  belonged  to 
them  since  the  Regency  Bill  of  1788. 

Sheridan's  part  in  the  negotiations  with  the  Whigs 
seems  to  have  been  dictated  by  a  mischievous  delight 
in  the  game  of  intrigue,  a  joy  in  paying  off  old  scores 
by  ridiculing  the  pompous  homilies  of  the  Whig 
grandees,  and  fidelity  to  the  Regent's  interests  as  he 
understood  them.  He  suppressed  a  good  many  truths 
and  twisted  others  into  a  likeness  to  falsehood.  He  had 
his  jest,  and  possibly  his  lawful  revenge  ;  but  they  cost 
him  dearly.  Excluded  from  the  Whig  councils,  he  made 
a  speech  or  two  in  Parliament  in  patriotic  support  of  the 
war  in  the  Peninsula.  At  the  General  Election  of  1812 
he  was  beaten  at  Stafford  because  he  had  not  the 


u6  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

wherewithal  to  bestow  the  customary  five  guineas  on 
the  electors  ;  and  his  exemption  from  arrest  ceasing 
with  his  exclusion  from  the  House,  he  was  for  a  short 
period  an  inmate  of  a  sponging-house  in  Took's  Court, 
off  Chancery  Lane. 

Sheridan's  exertions  to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  Drury 
Lane  after  its  reopening  in  1794  were  strenuous ;  and 
both  "  The  Stranger,"  into  which  he  introduced  his  well- 
known  song  "  I  have  a  silent  sorrow  here,"  and  "  Pizarro  " 
brought  money  into  the  treasury.  But  the  company  had 
been  playing  to  a  loss  at  the  Haymarket  while  the  theatre 
was  closed,  and  the  cost  of  rebuilding  exceeded  the 
estimate  by  .£70,000.  To  embarrassment  succeeded  ruin 
when,  on  February  24,  1809,  Drury  Lane  was  again 
burnt  to  the  ground.  Excluded  from  the  management 
of  the  new  theatre  by  the  precise  Whitbread,  he  was  also 
prohibited  from  touching  the  £12,000  due  to  him  until 
certain  claims,  subsequently  discovered  to  be  baseless, 
had  been  met.  When,  in  1795,  he  married  his  second 
wife,  an  extravagant  and  querulous  woman,  a  level- 
headed lawyer  reckoned  his  income  at  £10,000  a  year ; 
after  the  fire  his  only  certain  source  of  income  was  the 
£800  paid  him  as  Receiver  of  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall, 
the  sole  reward  for  devoted  services  he  ever  received 
from  the  Regent. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Sheridan's  creditors  clamoured 
round  him  ;  and  as  they  were  mostly  small  tradesmen, 
the  stir  they  made  was  prodigious.  But  his  debts  at  the 
time  of  his  death  only  amounted  to  £5,000,  and  they 
were  paid  by  his  relations.  Report  had  much  exag- 
gerated their  amount,  and  until  Mr.  Fraser  Rae's 
"  Biography  "  appeared,  a  pack  of  lies  told  by  the 
Regent  to  Croker  had  established  the  legend  that 


MORE   FRIENDS  OF   FOX  117 

Sheridan's  last  days  were  those  of  a  neglected  pauper. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  he  was  attended  by  the  three  leading 
physicians  of  the  day,  and  the  Bishop  of  London  prayed 
by  his  bedside.  Withal,  Moore's  well-known  lines  came 
too  near  the  truth  to  be  palatable  : 

"  How  proud  they  can  press  to  the  funeral  array 

Of    him    whom    they    shunn'd     in    his    sickness    and 

sorrow — 

How  bailiffs  may  seize  his  last  blanket  to-day 
Whose  pall  shall  be  held  by  nobles  to-morrow." 

Canning  and  Lord  Lauderdale,  who  cared  for  Sheridan 
in  his  last  illness,  cut  better  figures  than  those  who  were 
content  with  attending  a  magnificent  funeral. 

In  an  undated  letter,  printed  by  Mr.  Rae,  Sheridan 
describes  "  the  joyous  dear  manner  in  which  he  [Lord 
Holland]  seeing  me  coming  up  Berkeley  Square  yester- 
day, ran  like  a  schoolboy,  lame  as  he  was,  to  catch  me 
by  the  hand."  He  was,  indeed,  in  great  request  at 
Holland  House,  where  Lady  Holland,  with  a  boldness 
almost  Boadicean,  used  to  instruct  him  in  the  niceties 
of  the  English  language.  His  conversation  was  irre- 
sistible, and  in  his  prime  nothing  could  exceed  the 
vivacity  of  his  retort.  Moore,  who  undervalued  his 
intellectual  powers,  declared  that  his  bons  mots  in  society 
were  not  always  to  be  set  down  to  the  credit  of  the 
occasion,  but  that  frequently,  "like  skilful  priests,  he 
prepared  the  miracle  of  the  moment  beforehand,"  and 
that  he  remained  inert  until  he  could  make  his  point. 
Want  of  spontaneity  is  a  charge  often  advanced  against 
professional  jesters,  and  seldom  substantiated.  Byron's 
praise  does  not  convey  the  idea  of  a  carefully  hoarded 


ii8  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

wit  :  "  I  have  seen  him  cut  up  Whitbread,  quiz  (else- 
where, iron)  Mme.  de  Stael,  annihilate  Colman,  and  do 
little  else  by  some  others  (whose  names  as  good  friends 
I  set  not  down)  of  good  fame  and  address."  Byron 
proceeded  to  allude  to  the  failing  of  his  later  years  : 
"  Poor  fellow  !  he  got  drunk  very  thoroughly  and  very 
soon."  Towards  the  end,  too,  his  humour  became  ill- 
conditioned,  in  spite  of  Moore's  saying  that  his 

"Wit,  in  the  combat  as  gentle  as  bright, 
Ne'er  carried  a  heart-stain  away  on  its  blade." 

"His  humour,  or  rather  wit,"  declared  Byron,  "was 
always  saturnine  and  sometimes  savage  :  he  never 
laughed  (at  least  that  /  saw,  and  I  watched  him)." 
But  Sheridan  was  a  broken  man  when  Byron  came  to 
know  him,  and  even  so  he  could  put  down  "  Monk " 
Lewis.  "  I  will  bet  you,  Mr.  Sheridan,  a  very  large 
sum  :  I  will  bet  you  what  you  owe  me  as  manager  for 
my  '  Castle  Spectre.' "  "  I  never  make  large  bets,"  said 
Sheridan,  "  but  I  will  lay  you  a  very  small  one ;  I  will 
bet  you  what  it  is  worth." 

Sir  Philip  Francis,  the  son  of  Charles  Fox's  tutor, 
Dr.  Francis,  owed  his  earliest  step  in  active  life,  a  junior 
clerkship  in  the  Secretary  of  State's  office,  to  the  first 
Lord  Holland.  Gratitude,  if  such  a  word  can  be 
employed  where  he  is  concerned,  attached  him,  there- 
fore to  the  Whigs,  and,  in  addition,  he  found  them 
invaluable  instruments  for  executing  his  vengeance  on 
Warren  Hastings.  The  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  found  him  excluded  for  the  time  being  from 
Parliament,  but  he  was  returned  in  1802  for  Appleton 
through  the  influence  of  his  friend,  Lord  Thanet.  The 


MORE  FRIENDS  OF   FOX  119 

political  importance  of  Francis  lay,  in  any  case,  outside 
rather  than  inside  the  House.  Members  thought  his 
speeches  pompous  and  pedantic,  nor  did  his  "Little 
Indian"  views  carry  weight  in  days  when  British 
armies  went  forth  to  conquer.  But  he  was  a  frequent 
guest  at  the  Brighton  Pavilion  ;  well  regarded  by 
Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  and  much  in  the  confidence  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  but  bitterly  jealous  of  Sheridan, 
Erskine,  and  Lord  Moira.  In  the  "  Francis  Letters  "  an 
allusion  is  to  be  ifound  to  a  long  conference  with  the 
Prince  on  public  affairs  ;  and  as  he  at  that  time  re- 
garded himself  as  head  of  the  Whig  Party,  Francis 
must  have  built  up  hopes  on  the  intimacy.  But  when 
the  Royal  affection  for  the  traditional  principles  of 
1688  grew  cold  his  influence  declined,  and  in  1811  the 
keen  eye  of  Creevey  noted  that,  though  he  continued 
to  frequent  the  Pavilion,  he  was  "  not  there  on  the 
Prince's  invitation,  nor  as  a  member  of  his  suite,  and 
was  evidently  slighted."  His  career  as  a  director  of 
Carlton  House  politics  was  finished. 

Five  years  earlier  Francis  had  quarrelled  with  Fox 
when  that  statesman,  perplexed  between  multitudinous 
claims,  decided  that  the  Governor-Generalship  of  India 
must  be  entrusted  to  the  safer  hands  of  Lord  Minto. 
His  rancorous  resentment  comes  out  in  a  letter  written 
in  1815  to  Perry,  the  editor  of  the  Chronicle:  "Do  you 
think  that,  if  Mr.  Fox  had  found  it  coincide  with  his 
politics  or  his  partialities  to  have  permitted  me  to  return 
to  India  in  1806,  in  the  office  that  was  as  much  my  right 
as  was  his  to  be  Secretary  of  State,  I  would  not  have  put 
a  stop  to  such  enormities  [as  the  Juggernauth]  ?  "  Thus 
the  malignant  satirist  of  others  ended  his  public  activity 
in  disappointment  amply  merited,  declining  the 


120  THE    HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

governorship  of  the  Cape,  worth  .£10,000  a  year,  and 
accompanied  by  the  offer  of  the  Bath  and  a  seat  on 
the  Privy  Council. 

In  1812,  and  again  in  1814,  Francis  s  curses  came 
home  to  roost  when  John  Taylor  published,  first  a 
pamphlet  in  which  he  sought  to  prove  that  Dr.  Francis 
and  his  son  were  joint  authors  of  the  "  Junius  Letters," 
and  next  the  remarkable  work,  "Junius  Identified,"  in 
which  he  concentrated  his  attack  on  Sir  Philip  alone. 
Brougham  ably  seconded  the  charge  in  the  Edinburgh 
Review.  Francis  had  just  married  a  second  wife,  a  lady 
forty  years  his  junior,  and  she  has  left  an  artless  but 
invaluable  account  of  his  secretive  behaviour  under  the 
accusation.  He  was  extremely  alarmed  ;  he  refused  to 
read  the  book  for  some  months ;  when  he  did  so  he  shut 
himself  up  in  his  own  room,  and  emerged  thence  greatly 
agitated.  At  the  same  time  he  gave  her  "Junius"  as  a 
wedding  present,  with  the  recommendation  to  keep  it 
quiet  and  study  it  attentively,  and  left  her  "Junius 
Identified  "  as  a  legacy.  "  In  every  word  that  fell  from 
him  in  society,"  wrote  Lady  Francis,  "  he  seemed,  as  at 
chess,  to  see  ten  moves  before  him,  and  to  be  on  his 
guard  not  to  lay  his  game  open  to  any  of  them.  He 
was  ever  on  his  guard  against  himself."  He  withdrew 
his  name  from  Brooks's,  though  he  was  a  kind  of  father 
to  the  club,  and  it  had  been  a  constant  resource.  In 
society  his  irascibility  created  dread  :  "Sir  Philip,  give  me 
leave  to  ask  one  question,"  said  an  innocent  gentleman. 
"  At  your  peril,  sir  1 "  was  the  startling  and  peremptory 
interruption.  It  was  at  Holland  House  that  a  familiar 
and  credible  incident  is  supposed  to  have  occurred. 
Rogers  was  simple  enough  to  be  persuaded  by  Lord 
Holland  or  some  other  mischievous  friend  to  go  and  ask 


MORE   FRIENDS  OF   FOX  121 

Francis  point-blank  if  he  wrote  "Junius."  He  returned 
discomfited.  They  questioned  him  as  to  his  success. 
"  I  do  not  know  whether  he  is  in  Junius,"  was  the  reply, 
"  but  I  am  sure  he  is  Brutus."  Rogers  always  denied  the 
story,  but  social  autocrats  do  not  care  to  remember  early 
rebuffs,  and  it  is  confirmed  by  Lady  Francis.  When 
Lady  Holland  taxed  Francis  with  the  authorship,  he 
resorted,  as  usual,  to  an  angry  evasion  :  "  Now  that  I  am 
old,  people  think  they  may  with  impunity  impute  to  me 
such  rascality,  but  they  durst  not  have  done  so  when  I 
was  young."1  At  Holland  House,  anyhow,  Sir  Philip 
perpetrated  the  one  magnanimous  observation  that 
stands  to  his  credit.  "  The  jackals  herd  together,"  said 
he,  speaking  of  Pitt's  isolation  ;  "  the  lion  walks  alone." 

Francis  feared  one  man,  and  that  man  was  Lord 
Thurlow.  Creevey  tells  us  that  in  the  autumn  of  1805 
he  often  fixed  his  time  for  "  making  an  example  of  the 
old  ruffian,"  but  that,  though  the  ex-Chancellor  was 
always  ready  for  battle,  he  never  stirred.  Even  in  his 
decline,  Thurlow  inspired  more  dread  than  any  one  since 
Judge  Jefferys  was  wont  to  "  give  a  lick  with  the  rough 
side  of  his  tongue."  Home  Tooke  went  down  before 
him  at  Lady  Oxford's  despite  frequent  applications  to  the 
bottle  ;  "  it  seemed,"  says  Creevey,  who  witnessed  the 
scene,  "as  if  the  very  look  and  voice  of  Thurlow  scared 
him  out  of  his  senses."  Curran,  readiest  of  Irish  wits, 
cut  no  better  figure.  Though  remarkably  courteous  to 
ladies,  "  two  or  three  hours  were  spent  by  him  at  dinner 
in  laying  wait  for  any  unfortunate  slip  or  ridiculous 
observation  that  might  be  made  by  any  of  his  male 
visitors,  whom,  when  caught,  he  never  left  hold  of  until 

1  Mr.  C.  F.  Keary's  essay,  contributed  to  "  The  Francis  Letters," 
summarises  the  Junius  controversy  with  impartial  ability. 


122  THE    HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

I  have  seen,"  adds  Creevey  realistically,  "  the  sweat  run 
down  their  faces  with  the  scrape  they  had  got  into."  A 
full  suit  of  the  old  fashion,  with  a  great  wig  and  long 
ruffles,  as  painted  by  Phillips  in  the  well-known  portrait, 
huge  black  eyebrows  and  a  voice  of  rolling,  murmuring 
thunder  added  to  Thurlow's  terrors.  Hare  alone  fairly 
beat  him,  so  distinguished  and  daring  was  his  con- 
versation. 

Lord  Holland,  mindful  of  his  uncle's  droll  remark,  "  I 
suppose  no  man  was  ever  so  wise  as  Thurlow  looks," 
held  him  a  good  deal  more  cheaply  than  Creevey.  He 
derived  some  instruction  and  more  amusement  from  his 
conversation,  but  the  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party " 
convey  that  his  learning  was  more  singular  than  accurate, 
and  his  wit  ponderous,  as  indeed  it  was.  "  With  regard 
to  the  case  of  Regulus  on  which  my  learned  friend 
has  laid  such  a  stress,"  was  his  knockdown  reply  to  a 
classical  allusion  affectedly  advanced  by  Wedderburn. 
Lord  Thurlow's  ascendancy  over  the  House  of  Lords 
came  from  a  majestic  presence,  an  oracular  manner, 
and  a  sincere  belief  in  the  excellence  of  monarchical  and 
patrician  institutions.  But  Pitt  took  his  measure  when 
in  1792  he  compelled  him  to  resign  because  of  his 
intrigues  during  the  Regency  Crisis  and  his  factious 
opposition  to  the  Sinking  Fund,  much  as  Lord  Mel- 
bourne afterwards  banished  a  Chancellor  almost  as 
formidable  in  Lord  Brougham.  Thenceforward  he 
never  met  the  Government  in  the  open,  but  became 
absorbed  in  the  subterranean  politics  of  Carlton  House, 
and  shortly  before  his  death  in  1806  was  believed  to 
have  embittered  rather  than  alleviated  the  domestic 
differences  of  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  by  his 
attempted  mediation  between  them.  The  public  at  large 


MORE   FRIENDS  OF   FOX  123 

invested  the  surly  old  dog  with  attributes  almost  Satanic  ; 
and  it  was  a  matter  of  general  belief  that  his  last  utter- 
ance took  the  form  of  a  comprehensive  oath  hurled  at 
his  servants  as  they  were  carrying  him  upstairs  to  the 
room  in  which  he  died. 

Two  of  Fox's  early  associates,  besides  Adair,  sought 
their  fortunes  abroad.  George,  afterwards  Earl,  Macart- 
ney, became  the  early  friend  of  his  brother  Stephen,  and 
went  with  Charles  himself  to  the  Continent  in  the 
capacity  half  of  companion,  half  of  bear-leader.  A 
dashing,  handsome  Irishman,  he  married  a  daughter  of 
Lord  Bute,  and  was  a  popular  member  of  London 
society.  He  acquitted  himself  with  credit  in  an  embassy 
to  the  Court  of  the  redoubtable  Empress  Catherine,  and  as 
Governor  of  Fort  St.  George,  though  too  much  inclined 
to  overrule  the  military  element,  he  maintained  a  bold 
policy  against  Hyder  Ali  and  his  successor,  Tippoo  Sahib. 
His  objection  to  the  restoration  of  the  Nabob  of  Arcot, 
which  formed  an  article  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  was  so 
strong  as  to  persuade  him  into  an  injudicious  resignation, 
but  he  left  India  with  clean  hands.  Lord  Macartney 
was  a  bright  writer,  and  the  "  Journal  "  of  his  embassy  to 
China,  an  enterprise  he  undertook  in  1792,  is  a  classic 
in  its  way.  The  mission  failed  in  its  main  object,  the 
establishment  of  a  British  Resident  at  Pekin,  but  its 
members  were  much  impressed  by  the  Emperor,  "  a  very 
fine  old  gentleman,  still  healthy  and  vigorous,  not  having 
the  appearance  of  a  man  of  more  than  sixty,"  though  he 
was  eighty-three.  "Thus,"  continued  the  enthusiastic 
Irishman — 

u  have  I  seen  King  Solomon  in  all  his  glory.  1  use  this  expres- 
sion, because  the  scene  recalled  to  my  mind  a  puppet-show 


124  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

of  that  name,  which  I  recollect  to  have  seen  in  my  child- 
hood, and  which  made  so  strong  an  impression  on  my  mind 
that  I  thought  it  a  true  representation  of  the  highest  pitch  of 
human  greatness  and  felicity." 


Lord  Macartney's  last  employment  was  as  the  first 
Governor  of  Cape  Colony,  an  appointment  he  resigned, 
owing  to  ill-health,  in  1798.  Though  much  crippled  by 
the  gout,  he  enjoyed  some  years  of  retirement  at  Corney 
House,  Chiswick,  frequenting  the  Royal  and  Antiquarian 
Societies  and  the  Literary  Club,  where,  as  an  original 
member,  he  had,  in  his  younger  days,  associated  with 
Burke  and  Johnson.  An  agreeable  talker,  he  had  a 
prodigious  memory  for  dates  and  genealogies,  and  it  was 
said  of  him  at  Turin  that  he  knew  more  about  the  French 
and  Italian  families  than  they  did  themselves. 

Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  first  Earl  of  Minto,  was  a  more  con- 
siderable man  than  Lord  Macartney.  Sprung  from  a 
Lowland  stock  which  gave  to  the  Scottish  Bench  two 
upright  judges  and  to  the  House  of  Commons  a  philo- 
sopher-politician whose  ability  Horace  Walpole,  no 
admirer  of  those  from  beyond  the  border,  was  forced 
to  acknowledge,  he  distinguished  himself  as  a  young 
barrister  by  a  legal  argument  on  the  Poole  election,  con- 
sidered by  Fox  as,  perhaps,  the  best  he  ever  heard. 
Elected  member  for  Morpeth,  he  at  first  gave  general 
support  to  the  Administration  of  Lord  North,  but  before 
the  close  of  the  American  War  he  became  a  declared 
follower  of  Fox  and  Burke.  His  correspondence,  on 
which  his  great-niece,  the  Countess  of  Minto,  has  founded 
a  fascinating  biography,  proves  him  to  have  been  fully 
alive  to  the  vagaries  of  the  former,  but  to  have  regarded 
the  latter  with  an  affection  not  far  removed  from  worship. 


MORE   FRIENDS  OF   FOX  125 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution  he  soon  fore- 
saw the  inevitable  schism  between  Fox  and  Burke,  and 
for  a  time  tried  to  avoid  taking  a  side.  But  by  May,  1792, 
he  had  thoroughly  identified  himself  with  the  Portland 
Whigs,  and  was  the  first  of  that  party  to  accept  the 
Ministerial  overtures.  In  September  they  had  matured 
into  his  appointment  as  Civil  Commissioner  at  Toulon. 
He  spent  several  years  abroad,  organising  in  various 
capacities  the  resistance  to  Revolutionary  France, 
notably  as  Viceroy  of  Corsica  and  Envoy  Extraordinary 
at  Vienna.  Reduced  to  be  a  spectator  of  events  by  the 
treaty  of  Luneville,  he  resigned  his  appointment,  and 
returned  home  in  1801  to  find  the  Addington  Ministry 
floundering  along. 

Lord  Minto  spent  five  years  at  home,  attending  Dugald 
Stewart's  lectures  in  Edinburgh  with  his  son  and  young 
Harry  Temple,  afterwards  Lord  Palmerston,  and  visiting 
Nelson  at  Merton  Abbey,  where  Lady  Hamilton 
"  crammed  him  with  trowelfuls  of  flattery,  which  he 
went  on  taking  as  quietly  as  a  child  does  pap."  He  was 
also  a  friend  of  the  Princess  of  Wales,  though  scanda- 
lised by  her  indiscretions.  Having  taken  a  house  in 
Kensington,  he  dined  at  Holland  House  in  August,  1805. 
"  I  like  Lord  Holland  in  private  extremely,"  he  wrote. 
"  Nothing  can  be  more  perfectly  natural,  good-natured, 
moderate,  or  cheerful.  She  is  grown  very  fat,  but  other- 
wise just  as  she  was."  Soon  afterwards  he  became 
almost  domesticated  there,  and  had  Frere's  room  assigned 
to  him  as  a  regular  thing.  By  that  time  the  Addington 
Ministry  had  collapsed,  and  Lord  Minto's  leaders,  Lord 
Grenville  and  Windham,  by  gravitating  to  the  Whigs, 
had  wrecked  Pitt's  project  of  forming  a  Government  on 
a  broad  basis.  He  joined  the  coalition,  at  first,  with 


is6  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

great  reluctance,  but  with  the  honourable  feeling  that  he 
must  "  act  with  those  with  whom  he  had  been  connected 
all  his  life  in  friendship  as  well  as  politics  "  ;  though  he 
had  no  liking  for  Fox.  When  Pitt  died,  Lord  Holland 
wrote  to  him  :  "  Exclusive  of  that  concern  that  we  must 
all  feel  for  the  loss  of  so  remarkable  a  man,  I  am  one 
who  in  a  party  view  do  not  think  this  event  a  fortunate 
one  for  the  cause  or  the  country."  The  history  of  the 
"Talents"  Administration  certainly  justified  that  fore- 
boding. On  the  change  of  Government  Lord  Minto  was 
rewarded,  however,  by  the  Presidency  of  the  Board  of 
Control,  andv  not  long  afterwards  by  the  Governor- 
Generalship  of  India,  a  duty  seriously  undertaken.  It  is 
unnecessary  to  survey  a  rule  which  comprised  much 
legal  and  educational  reform  and  a  vigorous  foreign 
policy  directed  against  the  French  and  Dutch.  Lord 
Minto  gave  his  life  for  India,  for  in  1814  he  returned  to 
England  to  die,  and  sank  at  Stevenage,  on  the  first  stage 
of  his  journey  to  his  native  Scotland. 

The  Whig  Egeria,  Georgiana,  Duchess  of  Devonshire, 
was  also  a  visitor  at  Holland  House  before  her  early 
death  in  1806.  In  social  history  she  belongs  to  an  earlier 
world — the  world  that  Dr.  Johnson  edified,  Reynolds  and 
Gainsborough  painted,  and  Horace  Walpole  quizzed. 
Her  empire  over  fashion  was  signalised  by  her  suppres- 
sion of  hoops  and  adoption  of  the  graceful  folds  familiar 
to  later  generations  through  Sir  Joshua's  brush.  But 
she  owed  her  ascendancy  not  to  display,  and  hardly  to 
good  looks,  but  to  charm  of  manner.  '  'She  effaces  all 
without  being  a  beauty,"  wrote  Horace  Walpole,  "  but  her 
youthful  figure,  flowing  good-nature,  sense  and  lively 
modesty,  and  modest  familiarity  make  her  a  phenome- 
non." She  entertained  Dr.  Johnson  at  Chatsworth, 


Q    - 


MORE   FRIENDS   OF   FOX  127 

though  his  Toryism  was  by  no  means  of  her  way  of 
thinking.  Fox,  Sheridan  and  Hare  were,  on  the  contrary, 
her  favourite  associates,  and  she  knew  all  the  moves  of 
the  Whig  game.  Her  partisanship  reached  its  height 
during  Fox's  famous  contest  for  Westminster  in  1784, 
when  she  canvassed  the  slums,  and  won  over  a  gallant 
butcher  by  a  kiss.  But  she  was  in  the  confidence  of  the 
Opposition  leaders  down  to  the  end  of  her  life.  In  1806 
Fox  consulted  her  on  some  business,  obscurely  indicated 
in  his  letter,  in  which  the  Prince  of  Wales,  with  whom 
scandal  connected  her  name — probably  without  any 
foundation — and  Sheridan  were  concerned.  Just  before 
her  death  she  rejoiced  over  the  advent  of  her  friends  to 
power,  but  her  patriotism  was  wide  enough  to  enable  her 
to  lament  the  death  of  Fox's  great  rival.  Thus  she  wrote 
to  Sir  Augustus  Foster,  the  son  of  her  inseparable  com- 
panion and  successor  as  Duchess  of  Devonshire,  Lady 
Elizabeth  Foster  : 

"  Mr.  Pitt's  death  was  felt  by  his  opponents  in  a  manner  that 
did  equal  honour  to  him  and  them.  They  regretted  his  loss 
and  talents,  and  I  may  venture  to  say  Mr.  Fox  would  be  well 
pleased  indeed  could  he  recall  him  to  life  and  place  him  in 
his  Cabinet.  At  any  other  time  I  should  rejoice  and  exult  in 
the  assemblage  of  talent  and  integrity  which  we  now  can 
boast  of,  but,  alas  !  in  these  times  what  is  to  be  done  ?  It  is 
uphill  labour,  and  it  must  be  to  the  regret  of  everyone  that 
the  proposed  junction  was  not  suffered  to  take  place  when 
it  might  have  saved  Europe." 

According  to  a  story  told  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence, 
Hare  chaffed  her  amiable  readiness  to  make  promises  by 
writing  a  letter  in  her  name  which  granted  an  imaginary 
interview,  and  addressing  it  "Anybody,  Anywhere." 


128  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

The  same  easy-going  disposition  caused  her  to  run  up 
many  debts,  mostly  incurred  at  Martindale's  faro-table, 
but  a  settlement  was  effected  two  years  before  her  death, 
on  which  occasion  the  Duke,  though  reputed  to  be  an 
ungracious  husband,  displayed  conduct  which,  in  Lady 
Elizabeth  Foster's  opinion,  was  "angelic."  In  days 
when  everyone  rhymed,  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire 
celebrated  her  friends  and  public  events  in  versified 
effusions.  As  is  well  known,  her  "  Passage  of  the  Moun- 
tain of  St.  Gothard"  inspired  Coleridge  with  the  ode 
bearing  the  refrain  : 

"  O  lady,  nursed  in  pomp  and  pleasure, 
Whence  learned  you  that  heroic  measure  ? " 

The  heroic  measure  is  wedded,  unfortunately,  to  prosaic 
words  ;  and  poverty  of  thought  accompanies  most  of 
the  Duchess's  verse,  such  as  her  tame  lines  on  the 
death  of  Hare  and  on  the  battle  of  Trafalgar.  She  was 
at  her  best  when  prompted  by  affection,  as  in  the  poem 
addressed,  when  she  was  apprehensive  of  losing  her 
eyesight,  to  Lady  Elizabeth  Foster  : 

"  Ere  my  sight  I  was  doomed  to  resign, 

My  heart  I  surrendered  to  thee  ; 
Not  a  Thought  nor  an  Action  was  mine, 
But  I  saw  as  thou  badst  me  to  see." 

That  is  pretty  good  for  a  Duchess  ;  and,  in  any  case, 
she  did  not  live  in  vain,  since  she  inspired  Reynolds  to 
several  portraits,  including  the  delightful  and  masterly 
portrait  of  herself  and  child,  painted  in  1786,  and  Romney 
to  a  characteristic  head  and  bust.  The  famous  Gains- 
borough has  undoubtedly  been  finished  by  a  later  hand. 


CHAPTER    IX 
GRENVILLE,   GREY,   AND    WINDHAM 

"  Our  English  Cato  "—  Grenville  and  Pitt—"  Most  affectionately 
yours  "  —  The  "  Talents  "  Administration  —  The  Regency  Bill  — 
Grenville's  rupture  with  the  Whigs  —  At  Dropmore  —  Lord  Grey's 
beginnings  —  His  quarrel  with  the  Regent  —  Grey  and  the  Penin- 
sular War  —  Madame  de  Lievenand  Earl  Grey  —  The  Reform  Cabinet 
—  Life  at  Howick  —  Windham  and  his  diary  —  His  conversation  and 
tastes—  "  Weathercock  Windham"  —  As  Secretary  at  War  —  "That 
excellent  statesman  "  —  Windham's  death. 


Administration  of  "All  the  Talents"  was  one 
J[  of  the  least  efficient  in  English  history  ;  it  was  not 
so  much  disliked  as  disregarded.  Apart  from  the 
incongruous  elements  of  which  it  was  composed,  the 
character  of  its  chief,  Lord  Grenville,  formed  the  chief 
source  of  its  weakness.  The  son  of  that  George  Gren- 
ville who  lost  us  the  American  Colonies  because  he  con- 
fused pedantry  with  principle,  he  inherited  most  of  his 
father's  faults,  some  of  them  in  double  measure,  and 
his  one  virtue,  an  intense  industry.  He  was  narrow, 
obstinate,  impracticable,  and  cold  ;  the  title,  "  Our 
English  Cato,"  bestowed  on  him  by  Sir  Augustus 
Foster  in  one  of  his  letters  to  his  mother,  describes 
him  by  no  means  amiss.  He  was  hopelessly  devoid 
of  any  quality  calculated  to  strike  the  popular  imagina- 


130  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

tion  from  afar,  and  at  the  same  time  destitute  of  the 
power  of  managing  those  with  whom  he  came  in  imme- 
diate contact.  "  I  am  not  competent,"  he  wrote  to  his 
brother,  "to  the  management  of  men.  I  never  was  so 
naturally,  and  toil  and  anxiety  more  and  more  unfit  me 
for  it."  Grenville's  reputation  bears,  besides,  the  ugly 
mark  of  desertion.  He  owed  everything  to  Pitt,  who 
placed  him  in  the  Speaker's  chair  and  gave  him  the 
seals  of  the  Foreign  Office,  yet  in  the  hour  of  Pitt's 
necessity  he  was  an  active  instigator  of  opposition. 

Lord  Grenville's  conduct  during  the  troubled  existence 
of  the  Addington  Ministry  exhibits  him  at  his  worst  as  a 
parliamentary  precisian.  He  was  consistent,  no  doubt, 
in  his  attacks  on  the  Treaty  of  Amiens,  though  he  ought 
to  have  seen  that  peace  had  become  for  the  moment  a 
national  necessity.  He  sincerely  regarded  Pitt  as  the 
only  possible  Prime  Minister,  and  his  impatience  at  the 
statesman's  refusal  to  concur  in  assaults  on  the  "  Doctor  " 
was  shared  by  many  of  his  friends,  notably  by  Windham 
and  Lord  Minto.  But,  supposing  a  strong  war  policy  to 
have  been  imperative,  he  was  inconsistent  in  making 
overtures  to  Fox,  who  shut  his  eyes  to  the  aggressive 
designs  of  Napoleon,  and  affected  to  look  upon  France 
as  merely  a  rival  in  commerce.  Besides,  his  insistence 
upon  the  Whig  chief  as  an  indispensable  element  in  a 
stable  administration  was  largely  in  the  nature  of  an 
afterthought.  On  March  30,  1803,  he  went  to  stay  with 
Pitt  at  Walmer.  They  discussed  affairs  earnestly  and 
long,  and,  wrote  Grenville  in  a  narrative  of  events 
composed  at  the  time — 

u  I  stated  the  reasons  I  had  for  believing  that,  with  regard 
to  the  old  Opposition,  this  [the  formation  of  a  Government 


GRENVILLE,  GREY,  AND  WINDHAM         131 

to  include  the  representatives  of  all  parties]  might  be  done 
by  including  in  his  arrangement  only  Lord  Moira  and  Grey, 
and  perhaps  Tierney  (the  latter  in  some  office  subordinate  to 
the  Cabinet),  and  that  Fox  would  be  contented  not  to  take 
any  personal  share  in  the  Government  so  formed." 


In  a  little  over  a  year  Addington  had  been  frightened 
into  resignation,  and,  though  they  took  a  roundabout 
course,  events  justified  Grenville's  predictions.  The 
King  declined  to  accept  Fox  as  his  Minister,  Pitt 
acquiesced  rather  than  drive  his  Sovereign  mad  once 
more,  and  Fox  magnanimously  accepted  the  situation. 
But  a  point  of  form  had  been  raised,  and  that  by  one 
whose  obstinacy  had  often  come  into  conflict  with  the 
pride  of  the  Grenvilles.  In  declining  to  join  the  Ministry 
on  behalf  of  his  friends  and  himself,  he  wrote,  "  We  rest 
our  determination  solely  on  our  strong  sense  of  the 
impropriety  of  our  becoming  parties  to  a  system  of 
government  which  is  to  be  formed  at  such  a  moment 
on  the  principle  of  exclusion."  Fox  alone  was  ex- 
cluded, and  he  waived  his  claims.  The  letter  ends : 
"Believe  me  ever,  my  dear  Pitt,  most  affectionately 
yours."  Pitt  told  Lord  Eldon  that  he  would  teach 
that  proud  man  that,  in  the  service  and  with  the  con- 
fidence of  the  King,  he  could  do  without  him,  though  he 
thought  his  health  such  that  it  might  cost  him  his  life. 
Grenville's  letter  found  its  way  to  the  newspapers,  and 
thus  widened  the  estrangement.  He  spent  his  time 
largely  among  his  rhododendrons  at  Dropmore,  ridi- 
culing the  idea  of  a  French  invasion,  until  the  death 
of  Pitt  caused  old  feelings  to  revive,  and  he  mourned 
the  loss  of  a  friend  whom,  notwithstanding  some 
political  differences,  he  had  "  never  ceased  to  value 


132  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

and  to  love."  He  had  dissembled  that  love  with  some 
skill. 

Grenville's  recourse  in  forming  his  Government  to  the 
Whigs,  in  the  first  instance,  rather  than  to  the  friends  of 
Addington  and  the  Pittites,  stands  to  his  credit,  since  in 
so  acting  he  braved  the  resentment  of  the  Court.  But 
in  its  final  form  the  "  Talents "  Administration  was  a 
jumble  of  incongruities.  The  negotiations  for  peace 
failed,  and  in  their  conduct  of  the  war  the  critics  of 
Pitt's  expeditions  wasted  the  resources  of  the  country 
on  adventures  even  more  futile.  They  prepared  the 
way,  in  addition,  to  hostilities  with  the  United  States. 
The  Act  for  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade  was 
carried,  through  the  resolution  of  Grenville  and  Fox, 
and  they  risked  the  existence  of  the  Ministry  to  attain 
their  object.  But  the  death  of  Fox  deprived  Grenville 
of  the  one  colleague  whose  popularity  tended  to  counter- 
act his  own  repellent  manners,  and  nothing  could  exceed 
the  ineptitude  of  his  treatment  of  the  Catholic  question, 
which  brought  about  the  downfall  of  the  Ministry. 

Points  of  form  rather  than  matters  of  principle  dic- 
tated Lord  Grenville's  hesitations,  when  the  Regency 
Bill  seemed  to  give  the  Opposition  a  chance  of  return- 
ing to  power.  At  one  time  he  was  pedantically  anxious 
to  preserve  his  reputation  for  consistency ;  the  argu- 
ments of  1788  could  not  be  discarded  in  1811.  At 
another  he  clung  to  the  auditorship  of  the  Exchequer, 
which  he  owed  to  the  partiality  of  Pitt,  with  its  com- 
fortable ^4,000  a  year.  The  Regent's  overtures  to  "  the 
two  lords,"  Grey  and  Grenville,  after  the  death  of 
Perceval,  finally  broke  down  over  their  demand  that 
changes  should  be  made  in  the  composition  of  the 
Household,  but  they  merely  used  it  as  a  plausible 


GRENVILLE,  GREY,  AND  WINDHAM         133 

ground  for  the  rupture.  Of  the  pair  Grenville  was  the 
more  assiduous  in  blocking  his  own  way  to  office.  He 
preferred  to  lead  his  own  wing  of  a  distracted  Opposi- 
tion, fed  by  the  obsequious  gossip  of  Mr.  Fremantle  and 
Mr.  Wynn,  and  strangely  subservient  to  his  disagreeable 
brother,  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham.  The  Grenvilles' 
correspondence  seldom  rises  above  the  lowest  depths  of 
politics,  except  when  Francis  Horner,  who,  though  he 
never  belonged  to  them,  sat  for  St.  Mawes,  one  of  their 
boroughs,  takes  up  the  pen. 

As  he  tended  to  diverge  from  the  Whigs,  Grenville 
developed  saner  views  of  national  policy  than  Grey.  He 
was  all  for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  Peninsular  War, 
while  the  Whig  leader  persisted  in  regarding  Spain  as  a 
fatal  charnel-house.  A  Free  Trader  of  the  school  of 
Pitt,  he  opposed  the  oppressive  Corn  Law  of  1815, 
whereas  Grey  was  for  upholding  the  landed  interest 
and  preventing  a  sudden  reduction  of  rents.  His  last 
speech  of  any  moment  was  an  impressive  demand  for 
coercive  measures,  marking  his  complete  severance  from 
the  Whigs.  His  followers,  therefore,  had  no  hesitation 
in  joining  the  Government,  though,  thanks  to  the 
Marquis  of  Buckingham's  importunity,  they  exacted 
terms  which  provoked  Lord  Holland  to  the  sarcasm 
that  all  "articles  were  to  be  had  at  low  prices  except 
Grenvilles." 

Lord  Grenville  in  retirement  at  Dropmore  was  a  more 
amiable  figure  than  Lord  Grenville  lecturing  the  Regent 
or  haranguing  the  peers.  Lord  Minto  visited  him  in 
1804.  "There  never  was  a  more  gallant  or  attentive 
husband,"  he  wrote,  "and  to  all  appearance,  a  better 
natured  as  well  as  tempered  one.  We  walked  after 
dinner  to  his  farm,  when  he  patted  and  poored  an  old 


134  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

horse,  which  they  are  keeping  alive  with  mashes  and 
care,  a  full  quarter  of  an  hour.  This  was  an  old  horse 
he  had  been  used  to  ride  himself  in  his  youth  ;  but  he 
went  half  the  length  of  a  field  out  of  the  way  to  do  the 
same  by  an  old  cart-horse."  He  wrote  Latin  epitaphs 
on  his  dogs  Zephyr  and  Tippoo,  of  whom  the  second 
swam  ashore  at  Tenby,  the  sole  survivor  of  a  wreck,  with 
his  former  master's  pocket-book  in  his  mouth. 

"  Nee  pudet  invisi  nomen  gessisse  tyranni 
Si  tarn  dissimili  viximus  ingenio." 

Lord  Grenville's  "Nugae  Metricae,"  renderings  into 
Latin  verse  of  passages  from  Euripides  and  the  English 
and  Italian  poets,  justify  his  claim  to  be  reckoned,  with 
Lord  Wellesley  as  a  formidable  rival,  among  the  most 
accomplished  scholars  of  his  time.  Rogers  especially 
praised  his  version  of  Dante's  invocation  to  Virgil.  A 
copy  in  the  British  Museum  contains  corrections  and 
additions  by  his  own  hand,  and  facsimiles  of  letters 
from  Rogers  and  Lord  Holland,  the  latter  contending, 
with  right  scholastic  vigour,  for  his  rival  imitation  of 
Grenville's  favourite,  Flaminius  : 

"  Fame  shall  say  (if  of  me  she  should  happen  to  speak) 
A  poor  scholar  was  he,  and  wrote  barbarous  Greek, 
But  Grenville,  who  never  would  lightly  commend, 
Encouraged  his  labours  and  called  him  his  friend." 

The  other  of  the  "  two  lords,"  Earl  Grey,  was  as  open 
and  accessible  as  Grenville  was  haughty  and  distant. 
His  maiden  speech  of  1787  won  him  a  reputation  for 
abilities  and  character  which  he  never  lost.  Lord  Minto 


GRENVILLE,  GREY,  AND  WINDHAM         135 

considered  him  "  extremely  ripe  indeed  for  his  age,"  and 
capable  of  drinking  more  claret  than  Fox  and  Sheridan. 
More  of  a  genuine  democrat  than  Fox,  he  joined  the 
"Society  of  the  Friends  of  the  People,"  without  con- 
sulting his  leader,  and  by  presenting  their  petition  made 
the  cause  of  Parliamentary  Reform  his  own.  In  his  old 
age  he  regretted  having  joined  a  society  containing  revo- 
lutionary elements.  Grey  was  impulsive  and  querulous. 
When  his  motion  for  Reform  was  rejected  in  1797  he 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  one  of  the  chief  instigators  of  the 
ill-advised  secession  of  the  Opposition,  and  adhered  to 
his  resolve  with  a  pertinacity  as  thorough  as  Fox's. 
Inclined  throughout  his  life  to  regard  politics  less  as  a 
business  than  a  pursuit  proper  to  a  gentleman,  he  was 
far  happier  at  Howick,  in  the  heart  of  the  country, 
than  in  London.  The  urgent  representations  of  his 
friends  often  failed  to  lure  him  to  town  for  the  open- 
ing of  the  session,  and  he  was  content  with  fitful 
appearances  in  debate.  Fox,  who  understood  him, 
implored  him  to  bring  up  his  wife. 

Grey,  become  Lord  Howick,  was  Fox's  natural 
successor  in  1806  as  Foreign  Secretary  and  leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons.  In  the  first  capacity  he  had 
little  opportunity  for  distinguishing  himself ;  his  loss  of 
the  second  position  through  his  father's  death  in  1807 
was  an  irreparable  misfortune  for  his  party  and  far  from 
a  gain  to  himself.  Always  in  need  of  a  stimulus,  he 
would  have  found  it  in  nightly  contention  with  Canning 
or  Castlereagh,  while  he  would  have  saved  Whiggism 
from  being  identified  with  the  (follies  of  Whitbread  and 
Brougham.  In  the  House  of  Lords  the  assiduous 
oratory  of  Grenville  found  an  excuse  for  his  own 
idleness.  Perceval's  overture  to  him  to  join  the  Ministry, 


136  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

an  offer  curtly  declined,  reached  him  at  his  beloved 
Howick;  and  in  January,  1811,  Brooks's  must  have  been 
humming  with  premature  shouts  of  triumph  for  days 
before  he  made  a  leisurely  arrival  on  the  scene.  While 
the  Regent  was  shaking  himself  clear  of  the  Whig 
connection,  he  rapidly  changed  from  close  intimacy  with 
Grey  to  active  dislike.  Grey  himself  completed  the 
rupture  by  his  famous  and  most  injudicious  allusion  to 
the  "  cursed  and  baneful  influence  that  lurked  behind  the 
throne,"  in  the  shape  of  Lady  Hertford.  He  must  have 
known  that  he  was  thenceforth  impossible  as  Prime 
Minister  so  long  as  George  lived.  His  attachment  to 
public  life  continued  so  weak  that  in  1812  he  actually 
contemplated  surrendering  the  leadership  of  the  Whig 
party  to  Lord  Holland.  "  If  I  am  absent,"  he  sighed, 
"I  hope  it  will  be  generally  felt  that  I  stand  clear  of 
Whitbread's  motions." 

Grey's  most  creditable  proceedings  during  the  years  in 
which  he  acted  with  Grenville  consisted  in  his  steady 
advocacy  of  the  Catholic  claims  and  his  equally  steady 
refusal  to  countenance  such  Radical  extravagances  as 
annual  Parliaments  and  universal  suffrage.  But  the 
laboured  defence  of  his  speeches  on  the  Peninsular  War 
by  his  son,  General  Grey,  merely  amounts  to  this  :  that 
he  despaired  of  the  cause  in  its  dark  hours  and  applauded 
it  after  it  had  succeeded.  When  Napoleon  returned 
from  Elba,  Grey  proposed,  too,  the  impracticable  policy 
that  the  Powers  should  treat  the  change  of  sovereignty 
in  France  as  a  matter  in  which  they  had  no  concern,  and 
renew  the  concert  on  a  principle  purely  defensive — in 
other  words,  that  they  should  give  the  Emperor  leisure 
to  strengthen  himself.  The  introduction  of  Lord  Sid- 
mouth's  repressive  measures  in  1817  produced  the  final 


GRENVILLE,  GREY,   AND  WINDHAM         137 

rupture  between  Grenville  and  himself,  the  former 
reverting  to  the  principles  of  Pitt,  the  latter  remaining 
faithful  to  those  of  Fox. 

With  his  following  greatly  reduced,  Grey  continued  to 
play  a  passive   part  during  the  remaining  years  of  the 
Liverpool  Ministry.    The  strength  of  the  Reform  move- 
ment had  passed  from  Whigs  in   Parliament  to  Radicals 
on  the  platform,  and  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  democratic  ideals  which  were  actively  promoted  by 
his  son-in-law,  Lambton,  afterwards  Lord  Durham.     For 
the  inner  workings  of  his  mind  after  Lord  Liverpool's 
illness  had  broken   up   the   Government,  we  have  the 
"  Correspondence  of  Princess  Lieven  and  Earl  Grey "  to 
guide  us.    A  leader  of  Opposition  indulges  in  a  somewhat 
dangerous  pursuit  when  he  enters  into  intimate  letter- 
writing  with  the  wife  of  a  foreign  Ambassador,  though  it 
is  true  that  the  recluse  of  Howick  had  far  fewer  secrets 
to   disclose  than   the  active  diplomatist  at  the  Russian 
Embassy.     Madame   de   Lieven  claimed  that  they  both 
adhered  to  their  native  characters,  "lui  ires  Anglais,  moi 
ires  Russe."    Of  herself  that  is  true  enough,  but  Grey's 
carping  criticism  of  English  statesmen  and  their  measures 
is  not  altogether  pleasant  reading.    This  was  notably  the 
case  when  Canning  formed  his  unlucky  Government  out 
of  his  own  friends  and  the  more  moderate  Whigs.    As 
the  world  knows,  Grey  stood  icily  aloof,  and  justified  his 
refusal  to  support  the  Ministry  in  a  powerful  indictment 
of    Canning's  foreign   policy.     But,   though   he  denied 
the  charge,  personal  antipathy  undoubtedly  swayed  his 
decision.    When  Canning  was  no  more,  he  contented 
himself  with  the   cold  remark  :   "  The  circumstance  in 
his  death  which  I  think  most  to  be  regretted  is,  that  it 
took  place  before  his  character  and  conduct  were  fully 


138  THE    HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

developed."  The  Whig  and  Tory  aristocracies  had 
instinctively  closed  up  their  ranks  against  the  man 
whom  they  thought  fit  to  style  an  adventurer.  Grey 
had  far  more  in  common  with  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
than  with  Canning,  despite  the  liberal  views  of  the  latter 
on  Catholic  Emancipation.  He  toyed  with  the  notion  of 
joining  the  Duke's  Administration  in  1829,  basing  his 
final  rejection  of  it  on  his  proscription  by  the  King,  the 
Royal  hatred  having  been  intensified  by  Grey's  outspoken 
resistance  to  the  Bill  for  Queen  Caroline's  divorce. 

As  Premier  of  the  Reform  Cabinet  Lord  Grey  played 
a  great  part ;  all  the  greater  because  age  had  blunted  his 
enthusiasm.  He  was  occasionally  despondent,  and  he 
hardly  exercised  sufficient  control  over  the  fiercer  spirits 
in  the  Cabinet  like  Lord  Durham.  But  he  perceived 
that  at  a  time  when  popular  passions  were  running  high 
the  Prime  Minister's  duty  was  at  once  to  sustain  and  to 
moderate.  He  managed  King  William  with  considerable 
skill,  and  set  his  face  resolutely  against  a  premature 
creation  of  peers,  keeping  that  weapon  in  reserve  should 
everything  else  fail.  Firm  in  essentials,  he  was  con- 
ciliatory in  detail,  while  his  oratory  remained  at  the  level 
of  his  best  days.  When  the  Bill  became  law,  his  course 
was  really  finished,  and  it  is  a  pity  that  he  did  not  carry 
out  his  personal  wishes  and  resign,  instead  of  remaining 
to  fall  on  a  side  issue  through  the  treachery  of  Brougham 
and  the  blundering  of  Littleton,  the  Irish  Secretary, 
But  he  cherished  no  resentment  against  his  overthrowers, 
and  the  mitis  sapientia  Lain  remained  at  the  disposal 
of  his  successors,  until  old  age  divorced  him  from  all 
interest  in  affairs. 

General  Grey  has  drawn  a  pleasant  picture  of  his 
father's  life  at  Howick,  with  his  devoted  wife  and  his 


WILLIAM   WINDHAM 

FROM    THE    PAINTING    [IV   SIR   JOSHUA    REYNOLDS,    I'.R.A.,  IN   THE    NATIONAL   PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


GRENVILLE,  GREY,  AND  WINDHAM         139 

fifteen  children.  Not  much  of  a  reader,  apparently, 
though  he  admired  Spencer,  he  encouraged  them  to  live 
an  open  air  life,  wandering  at  will  without  tutor  or 
governess.  They  took  their  daily  ride  with  him  through 
grounds  in  which  he  had  planted  every  tree  and  planned 
every  path.  Grey  at  Howick,  in  short,  was  as  admirable 
as  Fox  at  St.  Anne's  Hill ;  the  angulus  prater  omncs 
terrarum  smiled  on  neither  of  them  in  vain. 

The  junction  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Opposition 
against  Addington  brought  within  the  Holland  House 
circle  a  remarkable  orator  and  great  gentleman  in 
William  Windham.  His  diary  shows  that  he  was  a 
fairly  frequent  visitor  there  between  1805  and  1810. 
From  the  intimacy  then  formed  Lord  Holland  was  able 
to  include  in  the  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party "  an 
elaborate  and  rather  baffling  sketch  of  Windham.  But 
then  Windham  was  a  curious  man.  The  idols  of  his 
youth  and  early  manhood  were  Dr.  Johnson  and  Burke, 
and  he  resembled  the  first  in  his  hypochondria,  the 
second  in  his  irritability.  At  the  bedside  of  the  dying 
Johnson  he  acquired  maxims  of  earnest  piety  which  he 
never  forgot,  and  no  man  was  less  affected  by  the  spirit 
of  the  "  Age  of  Reason  "  than  Mr.  Windham  of  Norfolk. 
From  the  Doctor,  too,  he  received  advice  of  more 
dubious  utility,  namely,  that  he  should  keep  a  diary. 
"  The  great  thing  to  be  recorded,"  he  said,  "  is  the  state 
of  your  own  mind,  and  you  should  write  down  every- 
thing you  remember  and  write  immediately."  Windham 
indulged  in  mental  introspection  to  excess,  while  he 
imitated  his  friend  by  taxing  his  intellect  with  long 
calculations  and  laborious  conveyances  of  epigrams 
from  one  language  to  another.  His  diary  abounds  in 
lamentations  over  hours  wasted  in  idleness  or  in  bed, 


140  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

and  in  dissatisfaction  with  his  own  speeches.  At  one 
time  Windham  was  distressed  because  he  could  not 
suddenly  remember  a  proper  name ;  at  another  in- 
voluntary twitchings  of  the  muscles  convinced  him  that 
a  stroke  of  paralysis  was  imminent.  These  records  may 
have  served,  to  some  extent,  as  a  relief  to  his  feelings, 
as  an  intellectual  escape  of  steam.  But  his  friends 
perceived  that  a  tendency  to  self-depreciation  hampered 
his  brilliant  gifts. 

To  the  social  world,  Windham,  stalwart  and  graceful 
in  person,  presented  an  agreeable  appearance.  His 
conversation  was  less  that  of  familiar  discourse  than 
of  Parliamentary  debate,  but  an  undeniable  charm 
of  manner  did  away  with  the  effects  of  a  didacticism 
which  he  had  probably  caught  from  Johnson.  When 
nearly  sixty,  Brougham,  meeting  him  for  the  first  time, 
thought  him  the  youngest  of  the  party.  He  was  a 
conscientious  and  attached  guardian  to  his  nephews  and 
nieces  ;  and  when,  after  much  dubitation,  he  married 
rather  late  in  life,  he  proved  a  devoted  husband. 
His  estate,  Felbrigg,  was  carefully  planted  and  farmed. 
Devoted  to  field  sports,  he  was  a  capital  boxer  and 
an  assiduous  patron  of  the  prize  ring,  though  his 
records  of  the  prowess  of  Belcher,  Cribb,  Gully,  and 
others  are  meagre.  Windham  carried  his  advocacy  of 
manly  pursuits,  as  they  were  then  considered,  to  limits 
beyond  those  tolerated  by  modern  taste.  Thus  he  stood 
up  for  bull-baiting,  partly  on  the  ground  that  if  it  went, 
hunting  would  go  as  well ;  and  his  oratory  killed 
Erskine's  Cruelty  to  Animals  Bill.  His  love  of  ancient 
Rome  may  have  rendered  his  essentially  chivalrous 
nature  blind  to  the  heartlessness  involved  in  torturing  a 
noble  beast. 


GRENVILLE,  GREY,   AND  WINDHAM         141 

Fanny  Burney,  who  heard  Windham's  speech  on 
Faizulla  Khan,  part  of  the  case  against  Warren  Hastings, 
founded  on  it  a  sagacious  prophecy.  "  I  can  only  sup- 
pose," she  wrote,  "  that  by  nature  he  is  extremely  diffi- 
dent, and  by  inclination  equally  ambitious ;  and  if  so, 
the  conflict  may  last  through  life."  "  Weathercock 
Windham,"  as  he  was  called,  was  far  from  a  model  of 
political  consistency.  He  brought  to  debate  an  elo- 
quence of  almost  the  first  rank,  never  touching  the 
comprehensive  philosophy  of  Burke  or  the  generous 
ardour  of  Fox,  but  remarkable  for  its  fertility  of  illus- 
tration and  dexterity,  except  when  his  vanity  came  into 
play.  His  famous  phrase,  "No  one  would  select  the 
hurricane  season  in  which  to  begin  repairing  his  house," 
destroyed  Flood's  Reform  Bill  of  1790.  Eleven  years 
later  he  used  a  lively  simile  by  way  of  commenting 
on  the  changes  in  French  politics  :  "  Since  the  begin- 
nings of  the  Revolution  the  Government  has  been  over- 
turned at  least  a  dozen  times.  They  have  turned  over  in 
the  air,  as  in  sport,  like  tumbler  pigeons,  but  have  they 
ever  ceased  their  flight  ? "  Much  influenced  by  Burke, 
he  took  early  alarm  at  the  French  Revolution,  and  advo- 
cated the  extremities  of  counter-revolution.  "  Why,"  he 
wrote  to  his  political  guide,  "  is  all  right  of  interference 
in  the  affairs  of  another  country,  even  without  the  plea  of 
aggression  on  the  part  of  that  country,  to  be  universally 
given  up  ?"  He  identified  himself  with  the  extreme  war 
party,  which  nothing  would  satisfy  but  the  restoration  of 
the  Bourbons  and  of  ci-devantisme  in  its  integrity.  Yet 
such  was  his  irresolution  that  he  could  not  be  induced  to 
come  up  from  Felbrigg  for  the  third  reading  of  the 
Traitorous  Correspondence  Bill,  though  his  chaise  stood 
ready  at  the  door,  consoling  himself  with  the  thought 


142  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

that  even  if  he  had  appeared  he  might  have  let  the 
occasion  pass  without  saying  a  word. 

Windham  was  one  of  the  Old  Whigs  who,  under 
pressure  from  Burke,  took  office  under  Pitt  in  July, 
1794.  The  Secretaryship  at  War,  to  which  he  was  ap- 
pointed, must  have  been  congenial  to  his  temper,  but 
on  his  own  admission  he  failed  as  an  administrator. 
Alternately  over-sanguine  and  over-despondent,  he  placed 
excessive  hopes  in  the  French  emigrants  as  a  weapon  of 
hostility  ;  and  long  after  the  disaster  of  Quiberon  should 
have  opened  his  eyes,  he  used  to  hold  mysterious  collo- 
quies with  Monsieur  and  other  august  incompetents. 
But  Windham  was  a  Minister  after  King  George's  own 
heart,  on  whom  he  lavished  compliments,  and  whom  he 
would  have  preferred  as  Premier  to  Pitt.  Windham 
actually  went  down  to  Weymouth  by  royal  command 
in  1800  to  discuss  such  a  change  of  men  ;  but,  wrote 
Lord  Malmesbury,  who  was  to  have  been  the  new 
Foreign  Secretary,  his  "  odd  and  unacquiescent  manner 
did  not  encourage  his  Majesty." 

Windham  remained  ostensibly  faithful  to  Pitt,  resigning 
with  him  in  1801,  until  the  renewal  of  peace  negotiations 
which  ripened  into  the  Treaty  of  Amiens  brought  the 
pair  to  a  sharp  issue,  since  Pitt  supported  the  Addington 
Ministry.  He  was  certainly  justified  in  his  distrust  of 
Napoleon,  but  that  did  not  excuse  his  ill-omened  junction 
with  the  Grenvilles  and  Fox  in  opposition  to  Pitt's  last 
Government,  more  especially  after  hostilities  had  been 
resumed.  Still  less  can  Windham  be  forgiven  for  carry- 
ing his  resentments  beyond  the  grave,  and  opposing  the 
resolution  that  "that  excellent  statesman"  should  be 
interred  at  the  public  expense  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
"  Did  not  execute  my  task  to  my  own  satisfaction,"  he 


GRENVILLE,  GREY,  AND  WINDHAM         143 

wrote ;  "  strange  that  I  should  miss  so  many  things 
which  are  now  so  obvious  and  ready."  It  was,  indeed, 
a  lamentable  exhibition  ;  a  discharge  of  Old  Whig  bile 
against  the  tactician  who  had  out-manoeuvred  the  party 
over  the  Regency  Bill,  and  whom,  even  as  a  colleague, 
they  distrusted,  because  he  declined  to  go  to  the  full 
lengths  of  an  impracticable  anti-Revolutionary  policy. 
It  remained  for  Windham  to  cut  an  indifferent  figure,  on 
the  whole,  as  Secretary  for  War  and  the  Colonies  in  the 
Grenville-Fox  Administration,  since,  though  he  shortened 
military  service,  he  scattered  the  military  resources  of  the 
country  over  ineffective  expeditions ;  and  to  make  some 
fitful  appearances  as  an  eloquent,  but  indefinite,  critic  of 
Perceval  and  Lord  Castlereagh.  In  June,  1810,  he  sank 
under  an  operation  for  a  tumour,  after  he  had  with 
characteristic  piety  received  the  Sacrament  in  a  private 
room  from  his  friend,  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury. 


CHAPTER   X 
WHIGS  AND   IRISHMEN 

The  third  Marquis  of  Lansdowne — His  junction  with  Canning — 
A  typical  Whig — Bowood  and  Lansdowne  House — Kindness  to 
Moore — Lord  Moira — The  negotiations  of  1812  —  An  unadroit 
Mascarille — Thomas  Grenville — Tierney — His  duel  with  Pitt — 
Leader  of  the  House — Whitbread — "The  Demosthenes  of  bad 
taste" — An  impossible  Minister — Whitbread  and  the  Princess  of 
Wales — The  affairs  of  Drury  Lane — Little  Creevey — Lord  Sefton — 
An  irresponsible  politician — Grattan's  maiden  speech — Catholic 
emancipation — Grattan  in  society — His  attachment  to  Rogers — 
"Longbow  and  Strongbow" — Curran's  appearance — Specimens  of 
his  wit. 

LORD  HENRY  PETTY,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer in  the  "  Talents  "  Administration,  stood  in 
direct  contrast  to  the  Secretary  for  War,  Mr.  Wind- 
ham.  Whereas  the  latter  retained  to  the  last  much  of  the 
indiscretion  of  youth,  the  statesman  of  twenty-five  carried 
an  old  head  on  young  shoulders.  Nor  could  two  people 
well  be  more  unlike  than  the  father,  better  known  as 
Lord  Shelburne,  the  subject  of  universal  distrust,  and 
the  son,  who  as  third  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  was  for 
nearly  fifty  years  of  public  life  regarded  as  a  guarantee 
for  straightforward  and  moderate  policy.  In  some 
respects  Lord  Lansdowne  did  not  altogether  fulfil  the 
expectations  formed  of  him  at  the  outset.  It  is  dim- 

M4 


WHIGS  AND  IRISHMEN  145 

cult  to  recognise  in  the  daring  financier  of  1806  and 
1807,  whose  eloquence  seemed  almost  to  have  supplied 
the  loss  of  Pitt,  the  quietly  sagacious  politician  who, 
whether  as  Lord  President  of  the  Council  or  member  of 
the  Cabinet  without  office,  was  content  with  frustrating 
Reform  Bills  and  acting  generally  as  a  Whig  breakwater 
to  the  onrush  of  Radicalism.  The  presumption  must  be 
that  his  removal  to  the  House  of  Lords  in  November, 
1809,  on  the  death  of  his  half-brother,  helped  to  extin- 
guish Lord  Lansdowne's  ambition.  For  the  next 
eighteen  years  he  steadily  supported  such  Liberal 
measures  as  Catholic  Emancipation,  the  removal  of 
Nonconformist  disabilities,  and  the  suppression  of  the 
slave-trade.  Lansdowne  House  and  Bowood  acted,  too, 
as  rallying  points  to  the  Opposition  of  much  the  same 
importance  as  Holland  House.  None  the  less,  their 
owner  by  no  means  filled  the  place  in  the  public  eye 
that  would  have  been  his  if  he  had  stood  up  as  leader 
of  the  Opposition  against  Canning  and  Castlereagh. 

In  1827  Lord  Lansdowne  closed  with  Canning's  over- 
tures, on  the  advice  of  Lord  Grenville,  and  brought  about 
the  coalition  between  a  section  of  the  Whigs  and  the 
friends  of  the  Prime  Minister.  The  step  was  distinctly 
reasonable,  since  in  it  lay  the  only  hope  of  keeping  out 
a  Government  of  "  Ultras,"  such  as  was  subsequently 
formed  under  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  But  Lord  Grey 
and  Lord  Althorp  held  aloof ;  Brooks's  revolted,  and 
Lord  Lansdowne's  position  became  highly  invidious. 
The  Duke  of  Bedford  considered  that  "he  had  been 
the  dupe  and  victim  of  the  two  greatest  rogues  (politically 
speaking)  in  the  kingdom" — George  IV.,  that  is,  and 
Canning.  Lord  Lansdowne,  however,  abided  by  the 
arrangement,  and,  on  the  sudden  death  of  the  Prime 


146  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Minister,  he  amiably  consented  to  serve  under  Lord 
Goderich,  though  his  friends  thought  he  ought  to  be 
at  the  head  of  the  Government.  "  Whilst  honest  as  the 
purest  virgin,"  wrote  Lord  John  Russell,  "  Lansdowne 
was  too  yielding,  too  mild,  and  most  unfit  to  deal  with 
men  in  important  political  transactions."  That,  of  course, 
is  the  opinion  of  a  zealous  politician,  but  Lord  Lans- 
downe had  reason  to  regret  that  he  had  not  pressed  his 
claims.  The  introduction  of  an  incongruous  element 
in  Mr.  Herries  rent  the  rickety  Administration  in  twain ; 
and  when  in  January,  1828,  it  finally  collapsed,  he  went 
quietly  back  to  the  Whigs. 

Though  Lord  Lansdowne  did  not  retire  from  public 
life  until  1861,  the  rest  of  his  career  does  not  invite  much 
comment.  He  might  have  been  Foreign  Secretary  in 
the  Grey  Ministry  of  1830,  or  even  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury,  but  he  preferred  the  greater  leisure  of  the 
Presidency  of  the  Council.  The  Premiership  came 
within  his  grasp  in  1852,  but,  crippled  with  gout,  he 
declined  the  responsibility.  To  him  the  Court  turned 
for  advice  on  the  collapse  of  Lord  Aberdeen's  Govern- 
ment in  1855,  and  by  a  process  of  elimination,  Palmer*- 
ston  became  Prime  Minister.  Without  Lord  Lansdowne 
neither  the  coalition  of  1852  would  have  been  possible 
nor  the  short-lived  coalition  of  three  years  later.  But  it 
would  be  futile  to  claim  for  him  any  profound  zeal  for 
popular  measures.  He  accepted  the  Act  of  Reform  of 
1832  as  a  final  settlement,  and  thereafter  he,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Palmerston,  resisted  further  instalments  far 
more  determinedly  than  Peelites  like  Lord  Aberdeen  or 
Sidney  Herbert.  His  sympathies  with  Free  Trade  in 
corn  never  carried  him  much  further  than  a  low  fixed 
duty,  and  in  that  again  he  was  in  agreement  with 


THK   MARQUIS  OF   LANSDOWNE 

KROM    THE    I'AINTINC;    BV    IIENKY    WAI.1  ON  IN    THE    NATIONAL    I' 


WHIGS  AND  IRISHMEN  147 

Palmerston.  But  he  perceived  the  danger  of  bringing 
up  the  masses  in  ignorance,  and  his  speeches  in  favour 
of  State  grants  for  educational  purposes  are  characteristic 
specimens  of  that  cautious  Whiggism  which  prefers  to 
avert  Revolution  from  without  by  Reform  from  within. 
Greville,  essentially  a  Tory,  though  he  associated  mainly 
with  Whigs,  regarded  Lord  Lansdowne  as  his  ideal 
statesman,  particularly  after  he  had  succeeded  in  making 
Lord  John  Russell  withdraw  the  Reform  Bill  of  1851. 
"  You  may  be  sure,"  Lord  Lansdowne  told  his  admirer, 
"  that  if  any  strong  measure  was  to  be  contemplated  by 
the  Cabinet,  I  should  walk  out  of  it."  Seven  years  earlier, 
when  invited  to  express  his  opinion  on  the  expediency 
of  admitting  Cobden  to  office,  he  replied  that  "  the  risk  of 
inviting  him  would  be  greater  than  the  gain,"  a  phrase 
that  appropriately  sums  up  the  attitude  of  the  aristocratic 
Whigs  towards  the  Radicals. 

After  a  visit  to  Bowood  in  1841,  where  Mrs.  Butler 
(Fanny  Kemble)  had  recited,  Moore  had  sung  some  of 
his  own  "  Melodies,"  and  Macaulay  had  poured  forth  a 
perpetual  stream  of  conversation,  Greville  wrote,  "I  never 
passed  a  week  with  so  much  good  talk,  almost  all  literary 
and  miscellaneous,  very  little  political,  no  scandal  and 
gossip."  Numerous  entries  in  Moore's  journals  bear  out 
the  truthfulness  of  this  description.  Both  at  Bowood  and 
at  Lansdowne  House  the  traditions  of  Lord  Shelburne's 
time,  when  their  hospitable  doors  opened  to  Bentham, 
Mirabeau,  and  other  illustrious  men,  were  carried  on  ; 
the  libraries  were  replenished  and  the  picture  galleries 
recruited  from  the  easels  of  Wilkie  and  Lawrence.  Gui- 
zot,  oppressed  by  its  statuary,  regarded  the  splendours  of 
the  mansion  in  Berkeley  Square  as  frigid,  but  a  foreigner 
who  enters  English  society  for  the  first  time  is  hardly  a 


148  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

fair  judge.  In  his  Wiltshire  home,  at  any  rate,  Lord 
Lansdowne  was  the  most  unaffected  of  hosts,  importing 
ease  into  all  his  relations,  and  caring  for  the  poor  on  the 
estate.  After  he  had  induced  Moore  to  make  Sloperton 
Cottage  his  home  in  1824,  his  kindnesses  to  the  man  of 
letters  went  on  unabatingly.  It  was  Lord  Lansdowne 
who  deposited  ^1,000  with  Longman  when  Moore  be- 
came involved  through  the  defalcation  of  his  deputy  in 
Bermuda,  with  injunctions  to  secrecy  which  the  amiable 
publisher  promptly  broke.  Lord  Lansdowne,  too,  urged 
Moore,  in  1835,  to  accept  a  literary  pension  of  ^300  in 
terms  which,  out  of  regard  for  the  poet's  susceptibilities 
as  an  Irish  patriot,  almost  amounted  to  entreaty.  After 
one  delicate  offer  of  assistance,  Moore  feelingly  ob- 
served :  "  Lord  Lansdowne  is  a  man  who  measures  every 
step  he  takes,  and  therefore  means  all  he  professes." 

Carlton  House  politics  were  represented  in  the  Fox  and 
Grenville  Ministry  by  Lord  Moira,  who  became  Master 
of  the  Ordnance,  with  an  understanding  that  attention 
should  be  paid  to  his  recommendations  for  peerages  and 
honours.  The  arrangement  was  well  calculated  to  tickle 
the  vanity  of  that  expansive  Irishman,  though  he  appears 
to  have  used  it  without  much  regard  to  his  own  or  Whig 
interests.  By  the  year  1806,  the  military  reputation  which 
he  had  won,  as  Lord  Rawdon,  during  the  American 
Rebellion,  notably  at  the  battle  of  Hobkirk's  Hill,  had 
been  impaired  by  his  failure  to  effect  anything  as  com- 
mander of  the  expedition  of  1793  to  the  Breton  coast, 
and,  with  less  justice,  by  the  poor  results  derived  from 
the  capable  support  he  lent  to  the  Duke  of  York  in 
Flanders.  Still,  he  impressed  the  public  as  a  voluble 
exponent  of  Irish  grievances  in  the  House  of  Lords — 
where,  as  Curran  put  it,  he  "aired  his  vocabulary" — as  a 


WHIGS  AND   IRISHMEN  149 

Commander-in-Chief  in  Scotland  given  to  lavish  hospit- 
ality, and,  above  all,  as  the  confidential  adviser  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales. 

The  ways  of  Carlton  House  were  generally  mysterious, 
and  the  darkest  of  them  all  was  that  trodden  by  Lord 
Moira  as  the  Prince's  political  go-between.  Sanguine 
and  unsuspecting,  he  had  few  qualifications  as  a  manager 
of  cabals,  beyond  a  staunch  fidelity  to  the  interests  of 
his  patron,  as  he  understood  them.  After  the  murder  of 
Perceval  by  the  madman  Bellingham  in  1812,  Lord 
Moira,  when  Lord  Wellesley  had  failed  to  form  a  Govern- 
ment, came  rather  near  being  Prime  Minister  of  England. 
He  was  troubled  with  no  doubts  either  as  to  his  own 
fitness  or  the  willingness  of  others  to  act  with  him.  He 
scoured  the  town  in  search  of  colleagues  and  scattered 
promises  about  broadcast.  On  the  strength  of  a  list  of 
names  suggested  by  Canning,  he  even  arranged  an  hour 
for  kissing  hands  at  Carlton  House.  Canning,  it  is  said, 
appeared  not  in  Court,  but  in  morning  dress,  to  show  that 
he  had  merely  come  to  see  what  was  going  on.  Mean- 
while the  Regent  had  prudently  decided  on  keeping  on 
the  existing  Government  under  Lord  Liverpool,  and 
blandly  informed  Lord  Moira  that  the  Premier  and 
Chancellor  designate  were  actually  in  waiting.  Soon 
afterwards  his  factotum  and  victim  departed  for  India 
as  Governor-General.  There  his  memorable  nine  years' 
rule  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  the  Mahratta  power 
and  the  freebooting  Pindaries,  but  Royal  recognition 
exhausted  itself  in  his  elevation  to  a  Marquisate,  and 
Lord  Hastings  was  driven  during  the  last  years  of  his 
life  to  eke  out  his  broken  fortunes  with  the  salary  of 
Governor  of  Malta. 

In  political  annals  the  Marquis  of  Hastings  is  destined 


150  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

to  be  remembered  not  as  an  able  soldier  and  adminis- 
trator but  as  the  Regent's  unadroit  Mascarille.  Stately 
in  presence  and  magnificent  in  manner,  he  affected  an 
exuberance  of  whisker  and  costume  which  the  Anti- 
Jacobin  turned  to  pointed  ridicule.  He  was  apter  at 
promises  than  performances,  and  though  he  does  not 
appear  to  have  behaved  shabbily  to  his  protege  Moore, 
the  needy  bard  built  up  hopes  on  his  patronage  which 
were  but  meagrely  fulfilled.  His  extravagance  assumed 
strange  forms,  as  when,  before  his  departure  for  India, 
he  bought  fifty  black  dolls  to  accustom  his  numerous 
progeny  to  the  complexion  of  the  natives. 

Among  the  less  conspicuous  members  of  the  "Talents  " 
Government  was  Thomas  Grenville,  an  elder  brother  of 
Lord  Grenville.  He  had  played,  however,  an  active  part 
in  negotiating  the  junction  between  the  Grenvilles  and 
the  Whigs,  thanks  to  his  early  friendship  with  Fox.  But 
political  life  was  probably  but  little  to  Grenville's  tastes. 
As  President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  and  afterwards  First 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  he  took  but  little  part  in  debate, 
and  with  the  fall  of  his  brother's  Administration  he  prac- 
tically renounced  politics.  Becoming  a  reactionary  in 
his  old  age — for  he  nearly  completed  his  ninety-first  year 
— he  never  set  foot  in  Holland  House  after  the  Act  of 
Reform  had  been  carried,  and  used  fiercely  to  denounce 
Cobden,  O'Connell,  and  all  their  works.  Charles  Greville 
has  given  us  a  delightful  portrait  of  "  the  most  amiable 
and  engaging  specimen  of  an  old  man  "  he  ever  beheld, 
"abounding  in  anecdotes  of  Lord  Chatham  and  Lord 
North,  doing  the  honours  of  his  table  with  all  the  energy, 
gaiety,  and  gallantry  of  a  man  in  the  prime  of  life."  He 
never  married,  for,  having  been  desperately  in  love  when 
young  with  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire,  he  remained 


WHIGS  AND   IRISHMEN  151 

faithful  to  her  image.  Unlike  his  brother,  "  the  Bogey," 
in  most  respects,  Tom  Grenville  resembled  him  in  his  love 
of  literature,  and  was  an  assiduous  collector  of  books. 
His  name  is  perpetuated  in  the  Grenville  Library  at  the 
British  Museum,  his  bequest  to  the  nation,  with  its  20,000 
volumes,  valued  at  over  ^50,000,  and  including  editions 
of  Homer,  Ariosto,  and  Italian  and  Spanish  works  which, 
once  lost  or  destroyed,  could  never  be  replaced. 

Tierney,  who  replaced  Thomas  Grenville  in  September, 
1806,  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  was  one  of 
the  numerous  politicians  of  middle-class  origin  whom 
the  aristocratic  Whigs  used,  but  never  regarded  as  one  of 
themselves.  Inclination  as  well  as  accident  seems  to 
have  made  him  something  of  a  hack.  The  son  of  an 
Irish  prize-agent  and  merchant,  his  wealth  carried  him 
into  Parliament  as  member  for  Southwark,  after  several 
failures.  His  cosmopolitan  ideas  gained  for  him  an 
unenviable  immortality  from  Canning  and  Frere  as  the 
"  Friend  of  Humanity  "  in  the  "  Needy  Knife-grinder." 
But  Tierney  was  essentially  a  Parliament  man  rather  than 
an  advocate  of  emotional  causes.  He  became  a  fluent 
debater,  though  he  never  rose  without  a  feeling  of 
nervousness,  with  some  knowledge  of  finance,  and  more 
powers  of  sarcasm  and  repartee. 

Alive  to  all  the  moves  of  the  game,  Tierney  tried  to 
prevent  the  Whig  secession  of  1798,  and  by  refusing  to 
join  it  earned  the  resentment  of  his  party  and  the  com- 
pliments of  Pitt.  Lord  Holland,  in  his  "  Memoirs  of  the 
Whig  Party,"  asserts  that  Tierney,  though  lavish  of 
insincere  expressions  of  attachment  to  Fox,  endeavoured 
to  separate  Grey  from  that  statesman  and  thus  create  a 
new  party.  It  may  have  been  so,  but  definite  evidence 
is  wanting.  Tierney's  famous  duel  with  Pitt,  in  which 


152  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  two  combatants  were  so  ignorant  of  their  weapons 
that  the  Prime  Minister,  for  one,  was  surprised  to  find  no 
hair  on  his  hair-trigger,  arose  out  of  the  heat  of  debate, 
and  left  no  rancorous  memories  behind  it.  Pitt,  on  the 
contrary,  persuaded  Addington  to  secure  his  services  as 
Treasurer  of  the  Navy,  and  when  he  came  to  the  desperate 
attempt  of  forming  his  own  last  Ministry  he  tried  to 
persuade  Tierney  to  remain.  George  Rose,  no  believer 
in  elevated  motives,  noted  in  his  diary  :  "  He  certainly 
thought  Carlton  House  the  better  speculation." 

Tierney  soon  discovered  that  Sheridan,  not  himself, 
was  the  chosen  bearer  of  the  Prince's  communications. 
He  slipped  back  into  the  Whig  fold,  and  became  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Control  in  the  "  Talents  "  Adminis- 
tration, but  had  to  reckon  with  the  hostility  of  the 
Grenvilles.  That  faction  did  not  easily  forget  or  forgive, 
and  they  lent  no  support  to  the  arrangement  of  1818, 
which,  on  the  death  of  George  Ponsonby,  made  Tierney, 
by  a  process  of  exhaustion,  leader  of  the  Opposition  in 
the  Commons.  For  some  four  years  he  held  that  thank- 
less position,  raked  in  the  flank  by  the  extreme  "  Moun- 
tain," and  dubbed  "Old  Cole"  by  Creevey,  after  a 
disreputable  character  in  one  of  Foote's  farces.  In 
Palmerstonian  times  he  might  have  made  a  reputation, 
since  he  was  personally  popular,  experienced  in  affairs, 
and  expert  in  that  familiar  oratory  of  which  M.  Thiers 
has  been  perhaps  the  most  finished  exponent.  But,  with 
faction  rampant,  he  exercised  little  authority,  and  chafed 
under  the  divisions  of  his  party.  Never  deficient  in 
political  courage,  he  risked  in  1819  a  trial  of  strength 
with  the  Government  and  was  routed  by  the  stolid  good 
sense  of  Lord  Castlereagh.  The  Tory  wits  exultingly 
parodied  Byron,  and  jibed  at  "  Old  Tierney"  who  "  came 


WHIGS  AND   IRISHMEN  153 

down  like  a  wolf  on  the  fold."  Two  years  later  he 
abdicated  the  leadership,  and  though  in  1827  he  was  one 
of  the  Whigs  who  joined  Canning,  entering  the  Cabinet 
as  Master  of  the  Mint,  he  was  little  more  than  a  cipher. 
When  he  died,  on  the  eve  of  the  return  of  the  Whigs  to 
power,  Grenville  dismissed  him  in  a  single  sentence  as  a 
loss  to  his  friends. 

Tierney  only  held  office  for  a  few  years  of  a  long 
political  life  ;  Whitbread  never  became  Minister  at  all. 
He  would  not  have  made  a  disciplined  or  even  a  passably 
loyal  colleague,  being  essentially  a  politician  to  catch 
the  popular  ear  when  in  Opposition  and  to  wreck  any 
Government  that  had  been  unfortunate  enough  to  enlist 
him.  Whitbread  advanced  from  his  brewery  within  the 
Whig  pale  through  his  marriage  with  the  sister  of  his 
schoolfellow,  Lord  Grey.  He  retained  to  the  last  middle- 
class  feelings  and  prejudices,  and  Byron  aptly  described 
him  as  the  Demosthenes  of  bad  taste  and  vulgar 
vehemence,  but  strong  and  English.  The  French  Revo- 
lution had  already  infected  English  politics  when  he 
made  his  mark  as  an  indefatigable  follower  of  Fox,  sparing 
no  labour  in  getting  up  a  case ;  a  sincere  advocate  of 
causes  like  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  and  the  im- 
provement of  the  condition  of  the  poor,  but  unscrupulous 
in  his  attacks  on  Pitt's  foreign  policy.  "  Sam  is  all  for 
Boney,"  remarked  his  admirer  Creevey  in  1814  ;  and  ex- 
cept for  a  brief  period  when  the  rising  in  Spain  aroused 
his  admiration,  Whitbread's  sympathies  were  with  his 
country's  enemies.  They  assumed  the  vexatious  form  of 
denouncing  Governments  for  wantonly  continuing  war 
when  peace  was  attainable. 

By  slow  degrees  the  Whig  chiefs  seem  to  have  made 
up  their  minds  that  Whitbread  was  impossible  as  an 


154  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

official  colleague.  He  was  to  have  been  excluded,  to 
the  interested  anger  of  Creevey,  if  they  had  come  to  their 
own  in  1812.  His  omission  in  1807,  however,  appears  to 
have  been  due  to  Grey's  misapprehension  that  he  did  not 
want  an  appointment.  Whitbread  was  profuse  in  ex- 
pressions of  disinterestedness,  combined  with  refusals  to 
serve  under  any  leader  in  the  Commons,  were  he  Lord 
Henry  Petty  or  Lord  George  Cavendish  or  Mr.  Ponsonby. 
After  an  awkward  interview  with  Grey,  he  wrote  to 
Creevey  :  "  I  have  no  object  but  the  public  good  ;  I  want 
nothing  ;  I  seek  nothing."  Yet  Whitbread  resembled 
other  people  of  exalted  professions  in  getting  angry  when 
taken  at  his  word.  His  sincerity  was  questioned,  even  by 
his  own  friends,  when  he  entered  upon  the  most  important 
task  of  his  public  life,  the  impeachment  of  Lord  Mel- 
ville. "  Mr.  Whitbread,"  we  find  in  the  "  Memoirs  of  the 
Whig  Party,"  "  though  he  had  pursued  the  subject  with 
prodigious  diligence,  and  understood  the  whole  transac- 
tion thoroughly,  was  so  occupied  in  displaying  his  wit 
and  eloquence,  or,  as  the  lively  Duchess  of  Gordon  ex- 
pressed it,  with  teaching  his  '  dray  horse  to  caper,'  that 
his  speeches  convinced  nobody "  ;  and  Lord  Melville 
was  acquitted.  His  egotism  inspired  Canning  to  the 
well-known  jest  upon  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Whitbread 
family  on  the  day  of  their  father's  death  : 

"So  that  day  still  I  hail  with  a  smile  and  a  sigh, 
For  his  u  beer  "  with  an  e  and  his  "  bier "  with  an  i." 

Whitbread  had  easier  game  in  the  Duke  of  York,  when 
victimised  by  Mrs.  Clarke,  and  in  Lord  Chatham,  when 
he  returned  in  disgrace  from  the  Walcheren  expedition  ; 
in  each  case  he  brought  down  his  man.  But  he  did 


WHIGS  AND   IRISHMEN  155 

small  service  to  his  country  or  to  the  Whigs  when  in 
1813  and  onwards  he  came  forward  as  the  intemperate 
advocate  of  the  Princess  of  Wales.  In  so  doing  he  threw 
a  slur  on  the  Cabinet  of  1806,  which  had  been  concerned 
in  the  "  Delicate  Investigation,"  while  the  looseness  of 
his  allegations  stung  one  of  its  members,  Lord  Ellen- 
borough,  into  the  exclamation  that  they  were  "  as  false  as 
hell  in  every  part."  From  the  candid  pages  of  Creevey 
we  learn  the  inner  history  of  that  demonstration,  namely, 
that  he,  Brougham,  and  Whitbread  wished  to  strike  at  the 
Government  through  the  Regent.  Of  the  trio  Whitbread 
was,  probably,  the  only  one  who  took  any  concern  in  the 
merits  of  the  case. 

Whitbread,  the  man,  was  upright  and  considerate,  but 
disputatious.  When  Tierney  lent  him  a  pew  at  St.  James's, 
Piccadilly,  he  added  the  warning  that  no  reply  was  per- 
mitted in  that  church.  As  chairman  of  the  committee 
formed  in  1810  to  rebuild  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  he  came 
into  collision  with  Sheridan,  but  his  action  merely 
amounted  to  the  strict  interpretation  of  the  not  unfair 
bargain  that  the  late  manager  and  his  family  should  be 
bought  out  at  a  price.  The  austere  man  of  business 
was  naturally  antipathetic  to  the  irresponsible  man  of 
letters,  who,  though  he  resented  the  earmarking  of  money 
to  meet  pressing  claims,  had  no  scruple  about  appealing 
to  the  just  steward  to  rescue  him  from  the  sponging 
house.  Sheridan  avenged  himself  by  an  elaborate  sarcasm 
on  Whitbread's  address,  written,  after  the  open  competi- 
tion had  failed,  in  case  Byron  did  not  produce  the 
prologue  he  had  undertaken  at  Lord  Holland's  request. 
All  the  bards,  he  said,  had  introduced  the  Phoenix,  but 
"  Whitbread  made  more  of  this  bird  than  any  of  them ; 
he  entered  into  particulars,  and  described  its  wings, 


156  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

beak,  tail,  &c. ;  in  short,  it  was  a  poulterer's  description 
of  a  Phoenix."  The  late  Mr.  Eraser  Rae,  by  an  excess 
of  ingenuity,  discovered  in  Whitbread's  dealing  with 
Sheridan  traces  of  that  insanity  which  caused  him  to 
take  his  own  life  three  years  later.  In  sober  fact, 
politics,  not  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  killed  the  unfortunate 
man.  Sir  Philip  Francis,  however,  supplies  a  most 
Franciscan  detail  of  character.  Whitbread  had  "an 
habitual  laugh,  a  laugh  without  merriment.  It  was 
a  trick  he  had  got ;  he  laughed  whenever  he  spoke. 
He  was  labouring  to  conceal  the  state  of  his  mind  ;  he 
wished  to  be  gay,  to  believe  that  he  was  happy." 

During  the  first  thirty-five  years  or  so  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  Creevey  and  his  crony,  Lord  Sefton, 
were  industrious  claqueurs  and  busybodies  in  Whig 
interests.  The  former  is  so  undisguisedly  portrayed 
in  his  racy  correspondence  that  it  is  unnecessary  to 
say  much  about  him.  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell,  his  ad- 
mirable editor,  compares  Creevey  with  Croker  ;  other 
parallels  suggest  themselves  in  "  Bear "  Ellice  and 
Bernal  Osborne.  Brimming  over  with  animal  spirits, 
officious,  and  devoured  by  curiosity,  he  knew  every- 
thing that  was  going  on,  and  sometimes  a  good  deal 
more.  Mr.  Tadpole  would  have  rejoiced  to  compare 
notes  with  him,  for  he  was  no  respecter  of  secrets, 
and  would  cheerfully  malign  the  hostess  with  whom 
he  had  just  been  dining,  or  Brougham,  the  confederate 
in  his  political  plots.  Creevey's  sense  of  honour  was 
not  nice,  but  it  existed  ;  and  though  the  violent  Whit- 
bread  was  the  man  for  his  stake,  he  kept  a  warm  corner 
in  his  heart,  almost  amounting  to  reverence,  for  Earl  Grey. 
In  his  descriptions  of  that  statesman  in  retirement,  left 
alone  by  his  friends,  he  touches  eloquence.  The  Whigs 


WHIGS  AND  IRISHMEN  157 

did  their  best  for  Creevey  ;  and  it  was  not  their  fault  that 
his  poverty  was  only  relieved  by  the  salary  of  Secretary 
to  the  Board  of  Control  in  the  "  Talents  "  Ministry  and, 
in  his  old  age,  when  they  returned  to  power  again,  by  the 
treasuryships,  first  of  the  Ordnance  and  then  of  Green- 
wich Hospital.  Though  he  entertained  ardent  hopes 
during  the  various  crises  that  they  would  "  do  something  " 
for  him,  the  laughing  philosopher  bore  disappointment 
with  equanimity.  In  the  clubs  and  society  he  was  in 
great  request,  through  his  ingenuity  in  borrowing  or 
inventing  nicknames  and  in  putting  an  impish  construc- 
tion on  public  events  and  the  conduct  of  public  men. 
Greville  tells  how  he  spent  his  life  in  easy  vagabondage, 
visiting  friends  who  were  delighted  to  have  him,  and 
staying  here  and  there  until  his  meagre  funds — he  had 
less  than  £200  a  year — were  exhausted.  "  I  think,"  he 
adds,  "  he  is  the  only  man  I  know  in  society,  who  possesses 
nothing."  It  is  much  to  the  credit  of  that  society  which, 
with  all  its  faults,  was  not  servile  to  wealth,  that  Creevey 
should  have  held  his  own  there.  He  would  be  extin- 
guished nowadays  by  gratuities  to  servants. 

Lord  Sefton  was  a  typical  figure  of  the  Regency.  An 
accomplished  whip  to  a  four-in-hand  with  a  team  of  fine 
bays,  and  a  capital  horseman,  he  is  at  one  time  admiringly 
chronicled  by  Creevey  as  breaking  the  bank  at  Crock- 
ford's  two  nights  following,  and  carrying  off  ^7,000,  at 
another  as  winning  ^600  at  whist.  In  the  end,  how- 
ever, Crockford's  relieved  him  of  ^200,000.  He  was  a 
pronounced  epicure,  and  secured  Ude,  the  famous  chef 
of  Louis  XVIII.,  for  his  table.  Though  he  was  devoid 
of  knowledge  and  ungainly  of  figure — Captain  Gronow 
calls  him  a  gigantic  hunchback — Lord  Sefton  was  one 
of  the  most  delightful  men  of  his  time.  "  Never  was 


158  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

there,"  writes  Greville,  "  such  a  master  of  what  is  called 
persiflage,"  adding  that  he  graduated  in  that  brilliant 
society  of  which  Hatfield  and  Cassiobury  were  the 
temples,  and  Lady  Salisbury,  Lady  Essex,  and  Mrs.  St. 
John  the  presiding  divinities. 

Lord  Sefton  took  to  politics,  much  as  he  had  taken  to 
cards  and  the  turf,  from  love  of  excitement.  His  friend- 
ship with  Brougham  furnished  the  cause,  and  in  1830  he 
was  employed  by  Lord  Grey  to  settle  the  conditions  of 
that  wayward  politician's  accession  to  office.  His  letters 
to  Creevey  are  not  conspicuous  for  any  depth  of  con- 
viction :  "  You  and  I  don't  care  a  damn  for  the  Catholics," 
is  a  confession  which  would  have  horrified  a  Liberal 
historian  like  Harriet  Martineau,  had  she  lived  to  read  it. 
But  he  was  a  shrewd  judge  of  affairs,  though  given  to 
downright  condemnations,  such  as  that  of  Lord  Lans- 
downe  to  be  "  the  damnedest  idiot  that  ever  lived,  not 
even  excepting  the  domestic  Goderich  ;  "  and  he  appears 
to  have  composed  quarrels  of  greater  moment  than  one 
between  Creevey  and  himself  and  another  between 
Creevey  and  Lady  Holland.  He  was  a  close  friend  of 
Lord  Grey,  and  Creevey,  comparing  the  two,  went  so  far 
as  to  state  that  Sefton,  though  ruined  by  want  of  early 
cultivation,  was  not  inferior  to  the  other  in  natural  talent, 
and  should  have  been  a  most  powerful,  though  not  as 
eloquent  a  speaker.  As  it  is,  he  lives  in  his  prophecy  that 
"  some  damnable  thing "  must  come  from  the  invention 
of  the  railway  locomotive. 

Two  great  Irishmen,  Grattan  and  Curran,  had  practi- 
cally played  their  parts  when  they  joined  the  Holland 
House  circle.  After  the  consummation  of  the  Union, 
Grattan  entered  the  Imperial  Parliament  in  April,  1805, 
as  member  for  Melton,  in  Yorkshire,  a  seat  he  exchanged 


WHIGS  AND   IRISHMEN  159 

six  years  later  for  the  more  appropriate  representation  of 
Dublin.  The  "  Memoirs  of  the  Whig  Party  "  describe  in 
an  often-quoted  passage  how  he  gained  the  ear  of  an 
assembly  prepared  to  laugh  at  him,  in  spite  of  "  the 
brevity  and  antithesis  of  his  sentences,  his  grotesque 
gesticulations,  peculiar  and  almost  foreign  accent,  and 
arch  articulation  and  countenance."  As  he  proceeded, 
lt  Mr.  Pitt  beat  time  to  the  artificial  but  harmonious 
cadence  of  his  periods,  and  Mr.  Canning's  countenance 
kindled  at  the  brightness  of  a  fancy  which  in  glitter  fully 
equalled  and  in  real  warmth  far  exceeded  his  own." 

In  his  conduct  of  the  agitation  for  Emancipation, 
however,  Grattan  never  succeeded  in  reconciling  the 
scruples  of  Whig  politicians  in  England  and  their  aristo- 
cratic Irish  allies  like  Lord  Fingal,  and  the  exaggerated 
anticipations  of  the  priesthood  and  peasantry.  He 
accepted,  too,  rather  than  led  the  incipient  movement 
for  the  repeal  of  the  Union.  The  cause  of  Emancipation 
came  nearest  success,  during  his  lifetime,  in  1812,  when 
Canning  carried  by  235  votes  to  106  a  resolution  that 
the  House  should,  early  in  the  next  session,  take  into 
consideration  the  laws  affecting  the  Catholics.  Victory 
seemed  in  sight  when,  in  the  new  Parliament  of  the 
following  year,  Grattan's  proposal  that  the  civil  and 
religious  disabilities  of  the  Catholics  should  cease  was 
accepted,  and  a  Bill  based  on  that  proposal  was  intro- 
duced. But  Grattan  acquiesced  in  its  being  weighted  by 
the  "  securities,"  designed  chiefly  to  secure  the  allegiance 
of  the  priesthood,  which  were  scouted  in  Ireland,  and 
the  highly  irregular  intervention  of  the  Speaker,  Mr. 
Abbot,  resulted  in  a  fatal  defeat.  The  Emancipation 
movement  passed  under  the  stronger  and  more  unscru- 
pulous guidance  of  O'Connell,  and  Grattan  died  soon 


160  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

after  the  accession  of  George  IV.,  having  exhausted  his 
enfeebled  health  in  coming  over  from  Ireland  to  make, 
as  he  hoped,  one  last  brilliant  effort  on  behalf  of  his 
Catholic  countrymen. 

Grattan's  appearances  at  Holland  House  do  not  seem 
to  have  been  numerous.  In  a  letter  to  Miss  Fox,  written 
on  the  day  of  his  funeral,  Lord  Holland  alluded  to  him 
as  one  for  whom  he  had  "really  more  affection  and 
regard  than  the  few  opportunities  I  had  of  cultivating  his 
friendship  would  seem  to  justify  me  in  expressing." 
Mackintosh  found  him  there  in  October,  1818,  when  he 
kept  the  party  up  to  two  o'clock  giving  interesting  and 
spirited  sketches  of  the  great  men  he  had  seen  in  his 
youth,  notably  Lord  Chatham.  "  There  is  nobody  so 
odd,  so  gentle  and  so  admirable,"  was  Mackintosh's 
verdict ;  "his  sayings  are  not  to  be  separated  from  his 
manner."  Byron,  too,  was  much  struck  "with  the  sim- 
plicity of  Grattan's  manners  in  private  life ;  they  were 
odd,  but  they  were  natural."  He  formed  a  strong 
attachment  for  Rogers,  so  much  so  that  Mrs.  Grattan 
once  angrily  exclaimed,  "  You'll  be  taken  for  Mr.  Rogers's 
shadow."  The  poet  addressed  to  him  the  lines  in 
"Human  Life": 


"A  walk  in  spring — Grattan,  like  those  with  thee 
By  the  heath-side  (who  has  not  envied  me  ? ) 
When  the  sweet  limes,  so  full  of  bees  in  June, 
Led  us  to  meet  beneath  their  boughs  at  noon  ; 
And  thou  wouldst  say  which  of  the  great  and  wise, 
Could  they  but  hear  and  at  thy  bidding  rise, 
Thou  wouldst  call  up  and  question." 


The     lime-trees    were    near    Tunbridge    Wells,    and 


WHIGS  AND   IRISHMEN  161 

Grattan  used  to  imagine  the  bees  as  holding  parlia- 
mentary debates  in  them  and  going  into  committee. 
The  ancients  he  would  have  liked  to  converse  with  were 
Scipio  Africanus,  Julius  Caesar,  whom  he  would  have 
questioned  as  to  his  part  during  Catiline's  conspiracy, 
though  without  pressing  the  question  ;  but  not  Cleo- 
patra, who  would  have  told  him  nothing  but  lies,  and 
whose  beauty  would  have  made  him  sad.  At  Tunbridge 
Wells,  too,  Grattan  originated  the  ideal  of  spending  his 
whole  life  in  a  small  neat  cottage,  content  with  cold  meat, 
and  bread,  and  beer — and  plenty  of  claret !  He  would 
enter  Kentish  homesteads,  hat  in  hand,  and  question 
their  inmates  about  their  wages  and  food  ;  he  would 
return  the  bow  of  a  child. 

Curran's  career  at  the  Irish  bar  ended  in  1807  when 
the  Whigs,  sorely  exercised  to  find  him  an  appointment, 
persuaded  him  to  accept  the  Mastership  of  the  Rolls  in 
Ireland.  Thenceforth  he  was  reduced,  as  he  said,  "  to  be 
stuck  up  in  a  window,  the  spectator  of  the  procession," 
living  on  the  fame  he  had  gained  as  an  Opposition 
orator  in  the  Parliament  on  St.  Stephen's  Green  and  as 
counsel  for  the  defence  in  the  State  trials  of  Hamilton 
Rowan,  the  "  Drogheda  defenders,"  and  the  rebels  of  '98. 
A  failure  on  the  Bench,  and  tired  of  Dublin  society, 
which  had  lost  much  of  its  charm  through  the  migration 
across  the  Channel  consequent  on  the  Union,  he  spent 
as  much  time  as  he  could  in  England.  He  lived,  some- 
what squalidly,  in  various  lodgings  ;  the  last  of  which  was 
at  No.  7,  Amelia  Place,  Brompton.  Curran  inevitably 
challenged  comparison  with  Erskine,  through  the  simi- 
larity of  their  fortunes  and  of  their  talents.  Byron  drew 
in  "  Don  Juan  "  the  playful  yet  discriminating  parallel 
between  them  : 

M 


i62  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

u  There  also  were  two  wits  by  acclamation, 

Longbow  from  Ireland,  Strongbow  from  the  Tweed, 
Both  lawyers,  and  both  men  of  education  ; 

But  Strongbow's  wit  was  of  more  polished  breed  ; 
Longbow  was  rich  in  an  imagination 

As  beautiful  and  bounding  as  a  steed, 
But  sometimes  stumbling  over  a  potato, 
While  Strongbow's  best  things  might  have  come  from 
Cato. 

Strongbow  was  like  a  new-tuned  harpsichord  ; 

But  Longbow,  wild  as  an  Eolian  harp, 
With  which  the  winds  of  heaven  can  claim  accord, 

And  make  the  music  either  flat  or  sharp. 
Of  Strongbow's  talk  you  would  not  change  a  word ; 

At  Longbow's  phrases  you  might  sometimes  carp : 
Both  wits — one  born  so  and  the  other  bred — 
This  by  the  heart — his  rival  by  the  head." 

When  Longbow  and  Strongbow  came  into  friendly  col- 
lision, the  former  had  the  advantage.  Thus,  when 
Erskine  was  trying  to  force  from  Curran  an  acknowledg- 
ment that  Grattan  had  felt  intimidated  at  the  idea  of  a 
first  appearance  before  the  British  Parliament,  the  egoist 
was  silenced  by,  "  Mr.  Grattan  is  a  very  modest  man  ;  he 
never  speaks  of  himself."  Byron,  indeed,  implicitly  con- 
ceded the  palm  to  Curran  when  he  wrote  to  Moore  :  "  I 
have  met  Curran  at  Holland  House — he  beats  everybody ; 
his  imagination  is  beyond  human,  and  his  humour  (it 
is  difficult  to  define  what  is  wit)  perfect.  Then  he  has 
fifty  faces  and  twice  as  many  voices  when  he  mimics — I 
never  met  his  equal."  Elsewhere  Byron  represented  him 
as  taking  off  Grattan,  bowing  to  the  very  ground,  and 
thanking  God  that  he  had  no  peculiarities  of  gesture  or 
appearance.  Curran  himself  reminded  Croker  of  the 
devil  with  his  tail  cut  off;  he  had  jet  black  eyes  and 


WHIGS  AND   IRISHMEN  163 

hair,  a  face  like  a  monkey,  with  a  protruding  underlip  ; 
his  hands  were  dirty  and  his  dress  slovenly. 

Rogers  lamented  that  more  specimens  of  his  wit  had 
not  been  preserved,  and  blamed  Moore  for  his  remissness 
in  that  respect.  It  was  at  Moore's  expense,  by  the  way, 
that  Curran  made  the  joke  :  "  So — I  hear — you  have 
married  a  pretty  woman — and  a  very  good  creature  too — 
an  excellent  creature — pray — um — how  do  you  pass  your 
evenings  ?"  Most  of  the  authenticated  Curran  stories  are 
redolent  of  the  Dublin  law-courts,  and  are  therefore,  it 
must  be  confessed,  rather  esoteric.  Nothing,  however, 
could  well  be  more  to  the  point  than  his  censure  of 
Byron's  histrionic  "  farewell  "  to  Lady  Byron  :  "  I  protest 
I  do  not  understand  this  kind  of  whimpering  ;  here  is  a 
man  who  first  weeps  over  his  wife,  and  then  wipes  his 
eyes  with  the  public."  He  could  be  most  offensive  when 
provoked,  as  in  his  smashing  retort  to  the  Englishman 
who  was  laughing  at  him  on  the  top  of  a  coach :  "  May 
God  Almighty  never  humanise  your  countenance,  you 
odious  baboon."  Curran's  wild  wit,  in  fact,  kept  com- 
pany with  a  profound  melancholy,  which  seldom  left 
him  in  his  later  years,  and  which  drove  him  into  retire- 
ment in  1814,  to  die  in  intense  gloom  three  years  later. 
"  I  have  never  painted  your  portrait  at  all,"  exclaimed 
Lawrence,  after  he  had  seen  him  in  a  rare  moment  of 
animation  ;  "  I  never  saw  your  proper  character  before." 
The  result  was  a  sugary  idealisation,  dashed  off  at  a 
single  sitting. 


CHAPTER   XI 
SOME    MEN   OF   LETTERS 


Dr.  Parr — His  correspondence  with  Lord  Holland — The  doctor's 
retorts — His  friends  and  his  pets — "  Monk  "  Lewis — A  guest  of 
the  great — His  plays  and  ballads — Lewis  and  Scott — Hookham 
Frere — His  talk  and  his  habits — Frere  as  a  diplomatist — The 
Anti-Jacobin  and  "The  Monks  and  the  Giants" — Frere  as  a 
translator. 


OF  the  many  men  of  letters  associated  with  Holland 
House,  Dr.  Parr  dated  back  to  the  first  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  After  he  had  been  a 
Master  at  Harrow  School,  he  settled  in  1783  at  Hatton, 
near  Warwick,  where  he  held  a  perpetual  curacy,  which, 
with  a  plurality  or  two,  after  the  comfortable  Whig 
tradition,  enabled  him  to  collect  a  library  of  10,000 
volumes,  and,  in  his  old  age,  to  set  up  a  coach  and  four. 
But  his  visits  to  the  "  capital,"  as  he  called  it,  were  great 
events.  The  Regent  humoured  Dr.  Parr  by  joining  him 
in  a  pipe  at  Carlton  House,  and  the  Whig  aristocracy 
were  glad  to  have  him  at  their  tables,  where  he  plied  his 
knife  and  fork  to  excellent  purpose. 

An  established  oracle,  Dr.  Parr  imitated  the  Delphic 
utterances  in  his  obscurity.     His  voice  was  so  thick  that, 

when  he  spoke,  no  one  unaccustomed  to  him  could  make 

164 


SOME   MEN   OF   LETTERS  165 

out  what  he  said,  and  when  he  wrote  nobody  could  read 
his  handwriting.  The  second  defect  he  remedied  through 
the  help  of  a  neighbouring  parson  with  .£1,000  a  year  called 
"  Jack,"  otherwise  his  "  male  auxiliary,"  who  acted  as  his 
secretary.  But  no  calligraphy  could  redeem  Dr.  Parr's 
correspondence  from  a  verbosity  which  makes  it  a  weari- 
ness to  read.  Yet  the  Whigs  set  store  by  his  opinion, 
and  it  was  not  without  reason  that  he  cherished  hopes  of 
a  bishopric  in  1806.  The  death  of  Fox,  over  whom  he 
was  anxious  to  perform  the  last  offices  of  religion,  wrecked 
his  chance.  The  Grenvilles  provided  for  their  own,  and 
Lord  Holland  in  vain  urged  upon  the  Prime  Minister 
"  the  situation  in  which  his  uncle  and  his  political  friends 
stood  in  respect  to  Dr.  Parr."  Time  did  not  lessen  the 
regard  of  Dr.  Parr  for  the  Fox  family.  In  his  chaotic 
correspondence  are  included  numerous  letters  to  Lord 
Holland  discussing  points  of  scholarship,  condemning 
the  banishment  of  Napoleon  to  St.  Helena,  and  exulting 
in  his  own  letter  of  retort  to  the  Archdeacon  of  Worcester 
when  requested  to  sign  a  petition  against  Catholic  Eman- 
cipation. A  prolix  epistle,  adjuring  Lord  Holland  to 
"  employ  his  sound  judgment  and  ingenuous  spirit  on 
the  subject  of  toleration "  can  only  be  described  as 
calculated  to  overwhelm  its  recipient  with  discursive 
learning.  Dr.  Parr's  last  public  exploit  was  hardly  to  the 
taste  of  Holland  House.  In  1820,  on  the  return  of  Queen 
Caroline  to  England,  he  constituted  himself  her  chaplain, 
inspired  the  answers  to  addresses,  and  prompted  Denman, 
one  of  her  counsel,  to  an  infelicitous  classical  allusion. 

Few  men  stood  out  more  distinctly  from  their  age  than 
this  affectionate,  vain  and  hot-headed  old  pedant,  with 
his  huge  wig,  velvet  coat,  pipe,  and  shaggy  eyebrows.  It 
was  Dr.  Parr's  good  fortune  to  have  won  the  esteem  of  a 


i66  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

large  number  of  pupils,  Sheridan  among  them,  and  they 
propagated  his  renown.  Even  Dr.  Johnson  allowed  that 
he  was  a  "fair  man,"  and,  as  his  conceit  was  adamantine, 
he  was  generally  master  of  his  company.  His  retorts,  as 
a  rule,  were  Johnsonian  in  vigour,  though  less  compact 
than  those  of  his  Tory  prototype.  "Sir,"  he  said  to  a 
well-known  lawyer,  "  you  are  incapable  of  doing  justice 
to  your  own  argument ;  you  weaken  it  by  diffusion  and 
perplex  it  by  reiteration."  To  a  would-be  scholar  :  "  You 
have  read  a  good  deal,  you  have  thought  very  little,  and 
you  know  nothing."  His  quarrel  with  Mackintosh, 
according  to  Rogers,  was  over  the  justice  of  the  sentence 
passed  on  Gerrald,  the  Scots  political  agitator  and  Parr's 
old  pupil.  It  inspired  his  description  of  Mackintosh  as 
one  who  had  come  up  from  his  native  land  with  "  a 
metaphysical  head,  a  cold  heart,  and  open  hands,"  and 
winged  the  famous  reply  when  Sir  James  was  denouncing 
O'Coigley,  the  Irish  conspirator.  "  Yes,  Jamie,"  said  the 
doctor,  "he  was  a  bad  man,  but  he  might  have  been 
worse  ;  he  was  an  Irishman,  but  he  might  have  been  a 
Scotsman ;  he  was  a  priest,  but  he  might  have  been  a 
lawyer ;  he  was  a  Republican  [v.l.  traitor],  but  he  might 
have  been  an  apostate."  But  though  Dr.  Parr  quarrelled 
freely  with  High  and  Low  Churchmen,  being  himself  an 
eighteenth-century  Latitudinarian,  and  with  men  of 
letters  who  were  not  of  his  way  of  thinking,  the  warmth 
of  his  friendships  excelled  the  heat  of  his  disputes. 
Bentham,  Romilly,  Rogers,  Moore,  Bishop  Copleston, 
Bishop  Maltby,  and  Dr.  Butler  of  Shrewsbury  were  all 
held  in  high  regard  by  him,  and  he  made  an  excellent 
parish  priest.  His  kindness  embraced  criminals  and 
animals,  and  the  story  is  told  of  him  that  he  cut  the 
throat  of  the  picture  of  his  first  wife — a  dame  with  a 


SOME   MEN   OF   LETTERS  167 

tongue — when  she  irritated  him  by  destroying  a  favourite 
cat.  Of  his  likes,  a  pronounced  one  was  a  May-day 
dinner  to  his  parishioners  with  a  dance  round  the 
maypole  ;  he  detested  the  east  wind.  By  fixing  the 
weathercock  in  that  direction  Sheridan's  son,  Tom,  is 
said  to  have  kept  the  doctor  a  prisoner  in  his  house  for 
a  fortnight. 

A  touch  of  absurdity  is  also  associated  with  the  memory 
of  Matthew  Gregory  Lewis,  known  from  his  most  popular 
romance  as  "Monk"  Lewis.  Few  writers  who  have  held 
such  a  high  reputation  in  their  day  have  been  so  com- 
pletely forgotten  as  this  facile  inventor  of  horrors.  Rogers 
questioned  his  taste,  but  admitted  that  he  had  genius. 
Byron  addressed  him  in  "English  Bards  and  Scotch 
Reviewers"  : 

"Oh,  wonder-working  Lewis  !  Monk  or  Bard, 
Who  fain  would  make  Parnassus  a  churchyard." 

The  stupendousness  of  Lewis's  works  was  by  no  means 
realised  in  his  person.  He  was  very  small,  though  well- 
proportioned  ;  with  eyes  projecting,  according  to  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  like  those  of  some  insects,  and  flattish  at 
the  orbit ;  and,  it  may  be  added,  on  the  evidence  of  his 
portrait,  a  round,  mild  face,  not  unlike  that  of  the  Mock- 
turtle  in  "Alice  in  Wonderland."  Though  he  dealt  freely 
in  the  gruesomely  indecent,  he  was  an  honourable  and 
kindly  soul.  He  played  with  discretion  the  part  of 
mediator  between  parents  who  had  separated,  and  when 
he  came  into  his  West  Indian  estates  he  established  his 
mother  in  a  cottage  near  Leatherhead.  Lewis  himself 
lived  in  a  villa  at  Barnes,  with  bronze  statues  of  Cupid 
and  Fortune  on  the  lawn,  where  he  collected  knick- 
knacks,  entertained  the  Duchess  of  York,  and  paraded, 


168  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

sous  les  reserves,  a  hopeless  passion  for  Lady  Charlotte 
Campbell,  a  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  While 
walking  with  the  object  of  his  adoration  Lewis  met  the 
lunatic  who  inspired  his  once  admired  ballad,  "  Crazy 
Jane,"  which  in  turn  gave  its  name  to  a  fashionable  hat, 
the  "Crazy  Jane  "hat. 

Lewis  was  a  frequent  guest  at  country  houses  both  in 
England  and  Scotland,  since  he  exuded  ballads  at  will, 
and  even  produced  at  Inverary  Castle,  in  conjunction 
with  William  Lamb,  the  future  Lord  Melbourne,  a  weekly 
paper  entitled  The  Bugle.  But  both  Scott  and  Byron 
voted  him  a  bore — "a  damned  bore"  added  the  latter, 
though  in  another  place  he  calls  him  a  "jewel  of  a  man." 
He  was  also  inordinately  vain.  Lewis  was  once  observed 
at  Oatlands  looking  very  sentimental ;  his  explanation 
was  that  the  Duchess  of  York  had  just  said  something  so 
kind  to  him.  "  Never  mind,  Lewis,"  broke  in  Colonel 
Armstrong,  "  don't  cry.  She  didn't  really  mean  it."  He 
was,  besides,  a  kind  master  to  his  West  Indian  slaves, 
and  it  was  on  the  return  from  a  voyage  to  Jamaica  to  see 
that  they  were  properly  used  that  he  died  at  sea  from 
yellow  fever. 

Monk  Lewis  knew  exactly  what  his  public  wanted,  and 
gave  it  to  them.  Horace  Walpole's  "Castle  of  Otranto" 
set  the  fashion  :  it  had  been  sedulously  cultivated  by 
"  Perdita "  Robinson  and  Mrs.  Radcliffe.  Castles  and 
dungeons,  spectres  and  shackles  were  the  mode ;  people 
relished  what  in  modern  literary  slang  is  called  "a  direct 
appeal."  They  got  it,  with  a  flavour  of  indecency  super- 
added.  Lewis's  prehensile  hands  made  free  use  of  the 
ample  quarry  provided  by  the  Romantic  movement  in 
Germany.  Not  without  cause  were  his  "  Tales  of 
Wonder,"  to  which  Scott  was  induced  to  contribute, 


SOME   MEN   OF  LETTERS  169 

re-christened  "Tales  of  Plunder."  But  Lewis's  instinctive 
skill  in  the  manipulation  of  the  supernatural  made  the 
"Castle  Spectre"  a  prodigious  success,  and  his  judgment 
as  to  stage  effect  proved  wiser  than  Sheridan's,  who 
advised  him  to  keep  the  ghost  out  of  the  last  scene.  His 
monodrama,  "The  Captive,"  had  to  be  withdrawn  from 
the  boards,  for  so  startling  was  Mrs.  Lichfield's  repre- 
sentation of  a  maniac  that  it  sent  the  ladies  amongst  the 
audience  into  hysterics.  As  printed,  it  consists  chiefly  of 
notes  of  exclamation  and  stage  directions.  But  Lewis's 
chief  claim  to  remembrance  is  that  by  his  ballads  "  Alonzo 
the  Brave  and  the  Fair  Imogene "  and  "  Durandarta " 
he  rekindled,  as  Lockhart  says,  the  poetic  ambition  in 
Scott's  breast.  "  He  had,"  wrote  Sir  Walter,  "  the  finest 
ear  for  rhythm  I  ever  met  with — finer  than  Byron's." 
The  praise  is  strangely  exaggerated,  but  Scott  was  grate- 
ful to  Lewis  for  some  encouragement ;  and  thirty  years 
afterwards  he  told  Allan  Cunningham  that  he  never  felt 
such  elation  as  when  the  Monk  first  invited  him  to  dine 
at  an  hotel.  On  formal  occasions  the  Monk  failed  to 
shine.  His  "  Lines  Written  on  Returning  from  the 
Funeral  of  the  Right  Hon.  C.  J.  Fox,  Addressed  to  Lord 
Holland  "  are  affectionate  but  tedious. 

Christ  Church  brought  Lord  Holland  and  Lewis 
together ;  but  his  acquaintance  with  Hookham  Frere  was 
of  even  earlier  date,  since  it  began  at  Eton.  That  fine 
and  delicate  flower  of  Eton  and  Cambridge  culture  was  a 
constant  guest  at  Holland  House,  where  his  own  room 
was  reserved  for  him,  until  in  1818  the  health  of  his  wife, 
Lady  Erroll,  banished  him  to  Malta,  whence,  as  Sir 
George  Cornewall  Lewis  said,  in  allusion  to  his  absent- 
mindedness,  he  forgot  to  come  back,  except  for  a  single 
brief  visit.  An  early  entry  in  Greville's  journal  records 


i;o  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

what  must  have  been  one  of  his  last  appearances,  in  June, 
1818,  when  he  repeated  a  great  deal  of  the  unpublished  part 
of  "  Whistlecraft,"  somewhat  to  the  boredom  of  the  diarist. 
Greville  kept  no  record  of  Frere's  conversation,  the  charm 
of  which  has  for  the  most  part  to  be  taken  on  trust.  To 
Moore  we  owe  his  saying,  "  Next  to  an  old  friend,  the  best 
thing  is  an  old  enemy,"  and  the  story  that  Madame  de 
[Stae'l  ?]  having  said,  in  her  intense  style,  "  I  should  like 
to  be  married  in  English,  in  a  language  in  which  vows 
are  so  faithfully  kept,"  some  one  asked  Frere,  "What 
language,  I  wonder,  was  she  married  in  ? "  "  Broken 
English,  I  suppose,"  answered  Frere.  His  admiration 
for  Spain  as  a  country  "where  God  Almighty  kept  large 
portions  of  land  in  His  own  hands  "  has  been  perpetuated 
by  many  pens. 

Frere's  chroniclers  confessed  that  his  repartees,  when 
set  down  on  paper,  failed  to  preserve  the  peculiar 
character  of  his  humour.  His  airily  discursive  corre- 
spondence with  his  family  brings  out  this  quality  to  some 
extent,  but  he  by  no  means  puts  his  best  self  into  his 
letters.  Slovenly  in  dress,  dreamy,  and  apt  to  be  wrapped 
up  in  the  book  of  the  moment,  time  and  place  went 
unregarded  by  him.  On  the  day  of  his  wedding  he 
became  so  absorbed  in  a  literary  discussion  with  Murray, 
the  publisher,  that  he  overstayed  the  time  when  he 
promised  Lady  Erroll  to  be  ready  for  their  journey  into 
the  country. 

Frere's  failure  as  a  diplomatist  is  commonly  overstated. 
Procrastinating  and  absent,  he  was  naturally  ill-fitted  to 
cope  with  the  situation  in  Spain  when  a  raw  Junta  and 
mobs  of  armies  were  struggling  to  make  head  against 
the  flower  of  Napoleon's  military  system.  At  the  same 
time  his  case,  as  stated  by  his  nephew,  the  late  Sir 


SOME   MEN  OF   LETTERS  171 

Bartle  Frere,  in  the  memoir  introductory  to  the  collected 
edition  of  his  works,  is  by  no  means  one  of  absolute 
incompetence.  If  Frere  overestimated  the  striking 
power  of  Sir  John  Moore's  expedition,  it  is  equally 
certain  that  the  General  erred  on  the  opposite  side,  and 
that  accident  played  its  part  in  bringing  about  the 
retreat  to  Corunna  as  well  as  miscalculations.  "  But," 
wrote  Sir  Bartle,  in  words  strikingly  applicable  to  his 
own  fate,  "a  victim  was  required  to  appease  popular 
discontent."  Frere  was  recalled  under  conditions  wound- 
ing to  a  sensitive  spirit ;  he  renounced  a  public  career  and 
twice  declined  a  peerage.  He  lived  thenceforth  the  life 
of  a  literary  aristocrat,  dreaming  the  days  away,  first  in 
London  and  on  his  estate  at  Roydon  and  afterwards  at 
Malta,  serene  in  his  retirement,  and  philosophically  in- 
terested in  the  world  beyond  the  Mediterranean  waters. 

Over-fastidiousness  and  a  certain  indolence  of  intellect 
prevented  Hookham  Frere  from  attaining  the  place  in 
literature  that  was  his  due.  In  his  contributions  to 
the  Microcosm  at  Eton  and  to  the  Anti-Jacobin  in 
Piccadilly,  his  humour,  in  so  far  as  their  separate  shares 
can  be  distinguished,  barely  yields  precedence  to  that  of 
Canning.  If  the  latter  was  more  daring,  Frere  excelled 
him  in  happiness  of  allusion  and  unexpected  flights  of 
fancy.  He  is  at  his  best  in  "  The  Loves  of  the  Triangles," 
the  parody  of  Erasmus  Darwin's  "  Loves  of  the  Plants  "  : 

u  Lo  !  where  the  chimney's  sooty  tube  extends 
The  fair  Trochais  from  the  corner  bends  ! 
Her  coal-black  eyes,  upturn'd,  incessant  mark 
The  eddying  smoke,  quick  flame,  and  violent  spark" — 

Trochais  being  the  nymph  of  the  wheel,  in  love  with  the 
smoke-jack.     But   Frere's  peculiar  gift,  the  mimicry  of 


172 

bygone  literature,  which  first  found  expression  in  his 
extraordinarily  clever  "Ode  on  Athelstan's  Victory," 
written  when  he  was  a  boy  at  Eton,  reached  its  high- 
water  mark,  perhaps,  in  the  "  Monks  and  the  Giants," 
purporting  to  be  written  by  William  and  Robert  Whistle- 
craft,  of  Stowmarket,  harness  and  collar-makers.  Byron, 
of  course,  imitated  his  use  of  the  octave  stanza  of  Pulci 
in  "  Beppo,"  and  "  Beppo  "  was  the  forerunner  of  "  Don 
Juan."  When  it  appeared,  "The  Monks  and  the  Giants" 
failed  to  acquire  popularity,  chiefly  because  people  per- 
sisted in  searching  it  for  political  satire.  "  Well,  indeed," 
said  Mackintosh  with  due  solemnity,  "  I  could  not  make 
out  the  allegory."  For  pure  fun,  however,  the  adventures 
of  Sir  Tristram  and  Sir  Gawain,  and  the  strategy  of  Friar 
John  against  their  monstrous  enemy,  the  giants,  are 
hard  to  beat,  and  Frere  alone  could  have  written  the 
dog- Latin  of  the  monkish  chronicle  : 

"Erant  rumores  et  timores  varii ; 

Dies  horroris  et  confusionis 
Evenit  in  calendis  Januarii." 

Frere's  capacity  for  thinking  in  two  languages  and  for 
extracting  the  spirit  out  of  his  author's  text  made  him 
supreme  as  a  translator,  whether  his  subject  was  "The 
Cid  "  or  Aristophanes  or  Theognis.  The  more  recondite 
the  original,  the  more  triumphant  were  his  efforts  to 
wrest  its  meaning  from  it.  "A  poetical  translation  of 
Aristophanes,"  to  quote  from  Sir  George  Cornewall 
Lewis's  friendly  criticism  in  the  "  Classical  Museum,"  "  is 
peculiarly  difficult.  Comedy  is  harder  of  translation  than 
tragedy ;  it  is  easier  to  copy  the  lofty  and  serious  than 
the  ridiculous  and  familiar."  But  Frere  as  a  critic  was 


SOME   MEN   OF   LETTERS  173 

inferior  to  Frere  as  a  Tenderer  of  Greek  comedy  into 
English.  Through  excess  of  ingenuity  he  attributed  to 
Aristophanes  an  intensity  of  purpose  that  never  was  his, 
and  erected  an  unauthentic  if  graceful  biography  on  the 
fragments  of  Theognis. 


CHAPTER  XII 
ROGERS  AND  "CONVERSATION"  SHARP 

Samuel  Rogers's  good  fortune — His  house  in  St.  James's  Place — 
"  A  liberal  host " — Rogers's  intercourse  with  Fox — As  brother  and 
friend — Rogers's  jealousy — His  caustic  comments — His  cadaverous 
appearance — Built  of  a  piece — "  Columbus  " — Lord  Dudley's  review 
— "Human  Life" — "Italy" — "Conversation"  Sharp — As  host  and 
politician — Sharp's  "Letters  and  Essays." 

ROGERS,  Luttrell   and  Sydney  Smith  formed  what 
may  be  termed  the  inner  triad  of  Holland  House. 
The  first  of  them  is  still  commemorated  by  his 
seat  in  the  Dutch  garden,  with  the  inscription  by  Lord 
Holland  which  commended  itself  by  its  happy  terseness 
to  Macaulay  : 

"  Here  Rogers  sate,  and  here  for  ever  dwell 
With  me  those  Pleasures  that  he  sang  so  well," 

together  with  another,  erring  in  diffuseness,  by  Luttrell. 
Rogers,  if  he  is  to  be  summed  up  in  a  phrase,  must  be 
counted  among  the  most  fortunate  of  men,  though  he 
complained  that  he  had  never  enjoyed  two  consecutive 
days'  good  health  before  he  was  fifty.  He  was  fortunate 
in  the  appearance  of  "The  Pleasures  of  Memory"  at 
a  moment  (1792)  when  poetry,  except  for  Cowper,  was 

174 


SAMUEL   ROGERS 

FROM    THE   PAINTING    BY   THOMAS    PHILLIPS,  R.A.,  IN  THE   NATIONAL   PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


ROGERS  AND  "CONVERSATION"   SHARP     175 

practically  dead  in  England  from  inanition  and  imitative- 
ness.  He  was  fortunate  in  the  Whig  beliefs  of  his  family, 
which  gained  for  him  the  acquaintance  of  Fox  and 
Sheridan  ;  he  was  fortunate  in  his  circumstances,  which 
enabled  him  to  entertain  freely  at  an  age  when  most 
bachelors  have  to  subject  their  ideas  of  hospitality  to 
a  rigid  revision.  It  was  on  the  advice  of  his  friend 
"Conversation"  Sharp  that  he  left  Stoke  Newington, 
after  his  father's  death,  and  established  himself  first  in 
Paper  Buildings,  the  Temple,  and  finally  in  the  well- 
known  house,  22,  St.  James's  Place. 

Rogers  narrowly  escaped  matrimony,  and  that,  when 
his  fastidiousness  is  remembered,  must  be  accounted 
another  piece  of  good  luck  for  him.  A  slipshod  or  Mala- 
propian  wife  would  soon  have  despatched  him  to  the 
tomb  ;  and  against  the  possibility  of  a  wise  choice  there 
stands  his  favourite  saying  that  it  mattered  little  whom  a 
man  married,  for  he  was  sure  to  find  next  morning  that 
he  had  married  somebody  else.  He  lavished  instead  his 
affections  on  his  house  in  St.  James's  Place,  with  the 
bow  windows  looking  over  the  Green  Park,  in  which 
the  drawing-room  was  decorated  by  Flaxman,  who  also 
designed  the  mantelpiece,  while  Stothard  executed  the 
cabinet  for  antiquities.  Rogers  was  a  sage  bibliophile 
and  a  sound  judge  of  prints  ;  he  had  a  genuine  feeling 
for  Italian  art.  Among  his  curios  was  Milton's  receipt 
to  the  publisher  for  the  five  pounds  -paid  him  for 
"  Paradise  Lost."  Another  treasure,  Addison's  table,  was 
acquired  by  him  from  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  and  found 
its  way  to  Holland  House  after  the  sale  of  his  effects. 
In  one  of  his  best  essays  Hayward  contrasted  the  purity 
of  Rogers's  taste  with  the  floridity  of  Horace  Walpole's, 
and  pointed  out  that  his  collections  simply  supplied  the 


176  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

place  of  the  ordinary  furniture  of  a  gentleman's  house. 
"  There  was  nothing  beyond  their  intrinsic  excellence  to 
remind  the  visitor  that  almost  every  object  his  eye  fell 
upon  was  a  priceless  gem,  a  coveted  rarity,  or  an  acknow- 
ledged masterpiece." 

Having  cut  himself  free  from  the  paternal  banking 
business,  Rogers  set  himself  to  live  a  life  of  literary  and 
intellectual  ease,  with  rare  and  painful  periods  of  literary 
parturition.  He  entertained  much  and  with  discrimina- 
tion, and  dined  out  but  rarely,  and  was  no  club  man. 
His  famous  breakfasts  were  not,  as  was  jokingly  said, 
probationary  to  dinner,  but  really  less  of  formalities  than 
the  later  meal.  Visits  to  country  houses,  such  as 
Bowood,  Dropmore,  and  Longleat,  made  up  Rogers's 
autumn,  with  a  tour  abroad  as  a  rare  variant ;  and  winter 
generally  saw  him  at  home  again.  Thus,  with  the  con- 
stant drawback  of  feeble  health,  the  easy  years  passed 
with  Rogers,  until  extreme  old  age  brought  with  it  loss  of 
memory  and  a  longing  for  death.  He  won,  and  he  held 
for  fifty  years,  a  position  without  a  rival,  maintaining 
friendship  on  equal  terms  with  Lord  Lansdowne,  Lord 
Holland,  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  yet  keeping  in 
touch  with  necessitous  authorship,  as  in  the  instances 
of  Cumberland  in  one  generation  and  Campbell  in  the 
next,  and  holding  out  the  hand  of  encouragement  to  the 
aspiring  genius  of  Dickens.  Yet,  as  Hayward  reminds 
us,  successful  authorship  was  not  regarded  as  a  recom- 
mendation to  the  best  society  at  the  time  when  Rogers 
was  ambitious  to  enter  it.  "  His  first  cautious  advances 
were  made  rather  in  the  character  of  a  liberal  host  than 
of  a  popular  poet."  His  intercourse  with  Fox,  recorded 
with  minuteness  in  the  "Recollections"  and  with  much 
feeling  in  the  well-known  apostrophe  in  "  Human  Life," 


ROGERS  AND  "CONVERSATION"  SHARP     177 

made  him  free  of  Holland  House,  and  membership  of 
the  King  of  Clubs  was  a  parallel  road  to  the  inner 
circle  of  Whiggism.  As  the  years  went  on  his  political 
enthusiasms  declined  and  his  cosmopolitan  sympathies 
widened.  He  had  a  strong  liking  for  Americans,  partly 
because  his  family  had  taken  the  extreme  Whig  side  at 
the  time  of  the  War  of  Independence,  partly  because 
they  saved  him  the  trouble  of  talking  French. 

Byron  remarked  of  Rogers  that  he  had  good  qualities 
to  counterbalance  the  littleness  of  his  character.  Over- 
balance would  have  been  a  correcter  word  to  use.  Of 
Rogers's  virtues  the  strongest  was  only  revealed  when  the 
late  Mr.  P.  W.  Clayden  published  the  "  Early  Life  "  and 
"  Rogers  and  his  Contemporaries,"  namely,  the  steadfast- 
ness of  his  home  affections.  His  sister  Sarah,  a  remark- 
able woman,  was  his  special  companion  ;  she  died  only 
a  year  before  him,  and  her  home  at  Hampstead  was  a 
reduced  copy,  as  a  storehouse  of  art,  of  his  own  in  St. 
James's  Place.  Despite  his  long  intercourse  with  fashion- 
able society,  Rogers  remained  a  pattern  of  middle-class 
domesticity.  Nor  was  he  backward  in  kindness,  whether 
the  claimants  on  his  good  offices  were  intimate  friends  or 
unknown  literary  aspirants.  He  reconciled  Moore  with 
Jeffrey  and  Byron  with  Moore.  His  draft  of  ^150  saved 
the  person  of  the  dying  Sheridan  from  arrest ;  he  was 
one  of  the  many  who  tried  to  extricate  Lawrence  from 
his  difficulties  ;  Moore  and  Campbell  were  under  obliga- 
tions to  him.  "  Borrow  five  hundred  pounds  of  him," 
said  the  last,  "  and  he  will  never  say  a  word  against  you 
until  you  come  to  repay  him."  Lord  John  Russell  added 
a  footnote  to  Moore's  acknowledgment  of  his  generosity 
to  the  effect  that  Rogers's  charity  was  not  only  abundant 
but  discriminating.  His  income,  however,  amounted  to 


178  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

but  .£5,000  a  year,  so  that  it  would  be  an  exaggeration 
to  call  him  wealthy.  He  delighted  besides  in  giving 
Twelfth  Night  parties  to  children,  and  his  kindness  to 
his  servants  approached  weakness.  The  conversation 
at  his  table  was  that  of  high  thinking ;  idle  gossip  was 
excluded,  but  letters  and  the  arts  were  habitually 
discussed. 

Rogers's  faults  were  jealousness  of  rival  attainments  in 
society  and  an  inveterate  propensity  to  say  disagreeable 
things.  He  could  not  endure  being  eclipsed  by  a  copious 
talker  like  Mackintosh  or  Macaulay,  and  Sir  Henry 
Holland  declares  that  on  such  occasions  he  infused 
additional  acid  into  his  remarks.  His  familiar  excuse  to 
Sir  Henry  Taylor  was  that  he  had  a  very  weak  voice,  and 
that  if  he  did  not  say  ill-natured  things  no  one  would 
hear  what  he  said.  But  at  one  time  of  his  life  his 
habitual  seventy  of  comment  had  become  so  formidable 
that,  as  Hay  ward  tells  us,  his  guests  might  be  seen 
manoeuvring  which  should  leave  the  room  last,  so  as  not 
to  undergo  the  dreaded  ordeal.  Rogers  envied  Luttrell 
his  social  distinction,  and  his  annoyance  took  the 
characteristic  form  of  regret  that  the  wit  devoted  his  time 
entirely  to  fashion.  At  the  same  time,  Greville  used  too 
strong  an  expression  when  he  declared  that  the  two 
inseparables  hated  one  another,  since  Luttrell  was  ami- 
ability itself,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  sincerity 
of  Rogers's  accurate  compliment,  "Luttrell  is  indeed  a 
pleasant  companion.  None  of  the  talkers  whom  I  meet 
in  London  society  can  slide  in  a  brilliant  thing  with  such 
readiness  as  he  does." 

Much  of  Rogers's  acerbity  came,  no  doubt,  from  an 
intolerance  of  assumption  and  intellectual  emptiness,  as 
witness  his  retort  to  the  pretentious  gentleman  who  tried 


ROGERS  AND  "  CONVERSATION  "  SHARP     179 

to  make  a  third  to  Rogers  and  Hay  ward  on  their  way 
back  from  an  evening  party.    The  intruder  protested  that 
he  hated  walking  alone.    "  I  should  have  thought,  sir," 
said  Rogers,  "  that  no  one  was  so  well  satisfied  with  your 
company  as  yourself."     But  he  appears  in  a  less  praise- 
worthy  light    in    Lady    Granville's   correspondence,   as 
gratuitously  snubbing  two  young  men  at  Bowood.    Were 
they  coming  for  a  walk  with  Lord  Lansdowne  and  him- 
self ?    They  said,  "No."     "  There  is  a  Providence,"  mur- 
mured Rogers.     One  of  his  female  favourites,  possibly 
Mrs.  Norton,  made  up  a  little  dinner  for  him,  in  which,  as 
she  hoped,  all  his  tastes  had  been  consulted.     After  a 
glance  round  the  table,  he  remarked  that  the  fish  was 
out  of  season.     Sometimes  the  smartness  of  his  humour 
amply  excused  its  tartness.     "  Is  it  the  contents  you  are 
looking  at  ?  "  asked  an  anxious  author  about  a  presenta- 
tion copy  of  a  book.     "  No,  the  discontents,"  answered 
Rogers,  pointing  to  the  list  of  subscribers.     But  there  was 
reason  in  Moore's  complaint  when  Rogers  commented 
on  the  dining-room  at  Sloperton,  hung  round  with  the 
portraits  of  Lord  Grey,  Lord  Lansdowne,  and  other  Whig 
notables,  "  Why,  you  have  all  your  patrons  about  you  ! " 
"A  good-natured  man,"  observed  Moore,  when  he  told 
the  story,  "would  have  said  friends." 

Yet  Rogers  could  pay  the  most  graceful  of  compliments 
when  he  chose,  and  in  his  happier  hour  overflowed  with 
kindliness  and  good  sense.  He  had,  besides,  to  live  up 
to  his  reputation,  while  his  cadaverous  appearance  made 
him  the  butt  of  innumerable  jokes,  the  most  classical  of 
which  is  Lord  Dudley's  inquiry  why,  since  he  could 
afford  it,  he  did  not  set  up  his  hearse.  They  seldom  went 
unavenged.  Lady  Eastlake  told  in  the  Quarterly  Review 
the  story  of  a  dinner-party  being  suddenly  interrupted  by 


i8o  THE   HOLLAND    HOUSE  CIRCLE 

a  tremendous  knock  at  the  front  door.  "  What's  that  ?  " 
said  the  host,  starting.  A  man  of  free  speech,  looking 
straight  at  Rogers,  interposed,  "  It's  the  devil  come  to 
carry  off  you."  "  Perhaps,"  replied  Rogers  in  his  blandest 
tones,  "he  may  have  the  discrimination  "  (the  word  of  six 
syllables  being  pronounced  with  special  clearness,  and 
with  a  slightly  nasal  pause  on  the  fourth  syllable)  "to 
prefer  another  member  of  the  company." 

Few  literary  men  have  been  built  more  completely  of 
a  piece  in  habits  and  character.  Rogers's  handwriting 
was  neat,  clear,  and  regular,  corresponding  with  the  pre- 
ciseness  of  his  habits.  He  kept  himself  in  good  health 
by  walking.  Thanks  to  that  habit,  he  was  able,  shortly 
before  the  accident — he  was  knocked  down  by  a  car- 
riage— which  crippled  him  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight,  to 
have  a  breakfast  party  at  home,  go  to  a  wedding  break- 
fast, where  he  returned  thanks  for  the  bridesmaids,  then 
to  Chiswick,  where  he  was  presented  to  an  Imperial 
Highness,  dine  out,  go  to  the  Opera  and  look  in  at  a 
ball — all  within  the  space  of  forty-eight  hours.  If  his 
fancy  for  keeping  nightingales  in  cages  to  sing  to  him 
was  an  affectation,  and  rather  a  cruel  one,  he  could  be 
perfectly  natural  when  drinking  tea  with  Wordsworth  at 
Grasmere  or  listening  in  admitted  bewilderment  to  the 
monologues  of  Coleridge. 

The  labour  Rogers  bestowed  on  his  poems,  happily 
quizzed  by  Sydney  Smith,  was  characteristic  of  the  man. 
Anxious  consultations  with  Wharton  and  Gilpin,  with 
Sharp,  Moore,  and  Mackintosh,  on  meticulous  variations, 
and  the  weighing  of  here  a  line  and  there  a  line,  here  a 
little  and  there  a  little,  preceded  publication.  The  gesta- 
tion of  "  Columbus,"  in  particular,  was  elephantine  in  its 
slowness,  and  the  result  was  a  fragmentary  production, 


ROGERS  AND  "CONVERSATION"  SHARP     181 

disfigured  by  a  straining  of  language  and  held  together  by 
supernatural  machinery  that  might  have  been  borrowed 
from  pantomime.  The  versification,  too,  was  careless, 
despite  the  labours  of  the  committee,  and  Lord  Dudley 
pounced  in  the  Quarterly  on  lines  like  : 

"  There  silent  sate  many  an  unbidden  guest." 

If  Rogers  touched  absurdity  in  "Columbus,"  he  de- 
scended to  feebleness  in  "Jacqueline,"  the  "highly 
refined  but  somewhat  insipid  pastoral,"  as  George  Ellis 
called  it,  also  in  the  Quarterly,  which  he  was  misguided 
enough  to  publish  in  the  same  volume  with  Byron's 
"  Lara."  But  "The  Pleasures  of  Memory/'  the  "  Epistle 
to  a  Friend,"  "Human  Life,"  and  "  Italy"  display  Rogers 
as  a  genuine  poet;  though  Byron's  famous  triangle,  in 
which  Scott  is  placed  above  the  apex,  Rogers  just  under 
it,  in  the  division  below  Moore  and  Campbell,  and  under 
them  Southey,  Wordsworth,  and  Coleridge,  has  been 
repudiated  by  modern  critical  taste.  Lord  Dudley,  in  a 
review  which  pushed  the  candour  of  friendship  to  its 
extreme  limits,  and  perhaps  beyond  them,  and  which 
Rogers  avenged  by  the  often-quoted  epigram  about 
Ward  and  his  heart,  defined  the  position  of  "The 
Pleasures  of  Memory"  with  a  much  nearer  approach 
to  exactitude  : 

"  Not  that  the  "  Pleasures  of  Memory "  entitles  its 
author  to  a  place  in  the  higher  class  of  English  poets. 
But  it  was  published  at  a  moment  of  great  political 
dearth,  when  the  old  school  (if  we  may  so  express 
ourselves)  was  drawn  almost  to  the  lees,  and  before  the 
new  one  had  appeared.  The  subject  was  very  fortunate 
and  it  was  not  too  long  ;  it  abounded  in  pleasing  though 
detached  pictures,  and  everywhere  it  afforded  evidence 
of  a  highly  cultivated  and  elegant  mind," 


i82  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

This  criticism  holds  good,  so  far  as  praise  goes,  of 
Rogers's  other  pieces,  and  more  particularly  of  "  Human 
Life,"  where  the  pictures  are  essentially  pleasing,  and 
the  evidence  of  elegant  cultivation  conspicuous  on  every 
page.  Hayward  justly  praises  the  closing  scene,  the 
deathbed  of  the  good  man  : 

"  Come  and  stand  round — the  widow  and  the  child, 
As  when  she  first  forgot  her  tears  and  smiled. 
They  who  watch  by  him  see  not,  but  he  sees, 
Sees  and  exults — were  ever  dreams  like  these  ? 
Those  who  watch  by  him,  hear  not ;  but  he  hears, 
And  Earth  recedes,  and  Heaven  itself  appears  ! " 

Rogers,  unfortunately,  is  remembered  less  through  this 
elevated  production  than  through  "  Italy,"  partly  from  its 
inevitable  fate,  to  be  transcribed  into  guide-books,  partly 
from  the  charm  of  the  illustrations.  It  must  be  con- 
fessed that  the  admirable  prose  of  the  notes  sometimes 
finds  its  way  into  the  text,  and  that  invention  is  over- 
laid by  historic  allusion.  Still,  the  revelation  of  the 
author's  self  is  in  Rogers's  best  manner  : 

"  Nature  denied  him  much, 

But  gave  him  at  his  birth  what  most  he  values  ; 
A  passionate  love  for  music,  sculpture,  painting, 
For  poetry,  the  language  of  the  gods, 
For  all  things  here,  or  grand  or  beautiful  : 
A  setting  sun,  a  lake  among  the  mountains, 
The  light  of  an  ingenuous  countenance, 
And  what  transcends  them  all,  a  noble  action." 

An  ideal  fireside  companion  on  a  winter  afternoon, 
Rogers  rescued  the  school  of  Pope  from  an  undignified 
end,  though  it  was  time  that  that  end  arrived. 


ROGERS  AND  "CONVERSATION"  SHARP     183 

Richard  or  "Conversation"  Sharp  is  as  inseparable 
from  Rogers  as  Dundas  from  Pitt  or  Farrington  from 
Lawrence.  The  two  were  much  of  an  age,  Sharp,  who 
was  born  in  1759,  being  by  about  four  years  Rogers's 
senior  ;  and,  except  for  an  occasional  tiff  over  meta- 
physics, their  friendship  continued  without  a  break  until 
the  death  of  the  first  of  them  in  1835  brought  it  to  a 
close.  "  Conversation "  Sharp's  name  inevitably  pro- 
vokes a  smile,  but  he  was  a  man  of  some  attainments 
and  the  object  of  universal  esteem.  The  son  of  a  British 
officer,  he  was  born  in  Newfoundland,  and  made  a  large 
fortune  in  the  City  of  London,  first  as  a  member  of  a 
West  India  firm,  and  secondly  as  a  hat  manufacturer. 
His  complexion  and  his  occupation  were  combined  by 
Luttrell  in  the  excellent  joke,  when  some  one  said  that  he 
had  transferred  the  dye  of  his  hats  to  his  face,  that  it  was 
"  darkness  that  might  be  felt."  Sharp  made  his  way  in 
society  by  much  the  same  means  as  Rogers,  partly  by 
advocating  strong  Whig  principles,  partly  by  making  his 
town  house  in  Park  Lane  and  his  "  cottage  home  "  at 
Fredley,  near  Dorking,  literary  and  political  centres. 
He  corresponded  with  all  the  Whigs,  from  Dr.  Parr  to 
Horner,  was  the  friend  of  men  of  letters  like  Hallam  and 
Moore,  and  behaved  with  great  kindness  to  Macaulay 
when  he  made  his  start  in  the  world. 

This  wealthy  and  travelled  bachelor  had  many  interests 
in  life.  Active  behind  the  scenes,  he  was  a  member  of 
political  clubs  like  the  Society  for  Obtaining  Constitu- 
tional Information  and  the  Friends  of  the  People, 
though  he  failed  to  make  much  of  a  figure  in  Parliament. 
He  was  prominent  at  the  literary  clubs,  the  King  of 
Clubs  among  them.  It  was  in  preparation  for  one  of 
those  appearances  that  his  partner,  Boddington,  was 


184  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

discovered  noting  down  the  topics  that  Sharp  wished  to 
have  introduced — a  truly  remarkable  instance  of  business 
methods  carried  out  of  business  hours.  But  prompted 
or  unprompted,  the  conversationalist  could  hold  his  own 
with  the  best  of  them  at  Holland  House  or  anywhere 
else.  The  records  of  his  prowess  are  scanty,  and  it  may 
be  inferred  that  he  conveyed  information  rather  than 
coined  epigrams,  and  abounded  in  illustrative  anecdote. 

The  slim  volume  of  "Letters  and  Essays  in  Prose 
and  Verse "  which  Sharp  left  behind  him  scarcely 
substantiates  Mackintosh's  eulogy  that  he  was  the  best 
critic  he  had  ever  known  ;  wide  reading  and  a  retentive 
memory  are  there,  but  they  merely  help  out  the  superior 
commonplace,  as  in  some  sententious  letters  to  a  young 
friend,  probably  one  of  his  numerous  wards.  In  an 
"  Epistle  to  Lord  Holland,"  written  at  Windermere,  the 
sight  of  some  school-buildings  erected  by  his  friend 
inspired  the  fine  rapture  : 

"  Yet  can  there  still  remain  one  generous  doubt 
Whether  a  People  with  sense,  or  without, 
Is  happier,  better,  less  disposed  to  err, 
Or  which  an  honest  statesman  must  prefer  ? " 

Miss  Berry,  who  understood  men,  thus  summed  up 
"  Conversation "  Sharp  :  "  He  is  clever,  but  I  should 
suspect  of  little  real  depth  of  intellect."  The  supposition 
is  tenable.  None  the  less  Sharp  was  an  influence. 


CHAPTER    XIII 
HENRY    LUTTRELL 

The  premiership  of  wit — Luttrell's  social  position— "A  philo- 
sopher in  all  things  " — London  and  Paris — Luttrell's  epigrams — 
"  Letters  to  Julia  " — Gifford's  review — Almack's — The  Park  and 
Kensington  Gardens — The  Argyll  Rooms  and  Brooks's — An 
apostrophe  to  London — The  dead  season — Hunting  and  the  House 
— "  Crockford  House" — Luttrell's  last  years. 

r  I  ^HE  premiership  of  wit  had  many  claimants  under 
the  Regency.  Lady  Granville  assigned  it  to 
Frere,  and  placed  Lord  Dudley  above  Luttrell,  on 

the  score  of  his  greater  abandon,  precisely  the  quality 

that  other  observers  denied  him.     Sir  Henry  Holland 

thus  differentiates  : 


"  The  wit  of  Lord  Dudley,  Lord  Alvanley,  and  Rogers  was 
poignant,  personal  sarcasm — in  Luttrell  it  was  perpetual  fun, 
of  lighter  and  more  various  kind,  and  whimsically  expressed 
in  his  features  as  well  as  his  words.  Natio  comceda  est  was 
the  maxim  of  his  mind,  and  expressed  the  whole  field  of  his 
humour." 


Charles  Greville,  in  the  second  of  the  two  characters  he 

drew  from  Luttrell,  also  contrasted  him  with  Rogers  ; 

185 


186  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

"  Rogers  and  Luttrell  were  always  bracketed  together.  .  .  . 
LuttrelPs  bons  mots  and  repartees  were  excellent,  but  he  was 
less  caustic,  more  good-natured,  but  in  some  respects  less 
striking  in  conversation  than  his  companion,  who  had  more 
knowledge,  more  imagination,  and,  though  in  a  different  way, 
as  much  wit." 


Byron  described  Luttrell  as  "  the  most  epigrammatic 
conversationalist"  he  ever  met;  Rogers's  tribute  has  been 
already  given.  Altogether  Greville  paid  him  no  more 
than  his  due  when  he  wrote  that,  though  Luttrell  never 
attained  any  but  a  social  position,  it  was  one  of  great 
eminence  and  success.  It  was  won,  too,  in  the  face  of 
many  obstacles.  He  was  believed  to  be  the  natural  son 
of  the  second  Lord  Carhampton,  a  brave,  witty,  and 
disreputable  Irish  peer,  more  familiar  as  the  Colonel 
Luttrell  who  contested  Middlesex  against  Wilkes,  and 
Greville  seems  to  imply  that  he  had  the  manliness  not  to 
be  ashamed  of  his  mother's  family.  His  father  did  little 
for  him,  beyond  obtaining  for  him  a  seat  in  the  last  Irish 
Parliament  and  an  appointment  in  the  Irish  Government, 
which  he  commuted  for  a  pension — it  seems  to  have 
been  his  only  source  of  income. 

Luttrell  triumphed  over  narrow  means  and  mystery  of 
origin  on  entering  London  society,  shortly  after  the 
Union,  under  the  wing  of  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire. 
Greville,  on  first  meeting  him,  thought  him  extremely 
sensitive  and  easily  disconcerted,  though  tolerant  of 
everything  except  boredom.  He  inevitably  occupied  an 
isolated  and  defensive  position,  keeping  his  secret  to 
himself.  Both  Greville  and  Lady  Granville  were  struck 
by  his  contempt  for  mere  riches  and  rank.  "  He  has 
that  don  du  del,"  wrote  the  latter,  "of  never  being  de  trap, 


HENRY   LUTTRELL  187 

and  I  never  met  with  so  independent  a  person."  He 
declined  any  further  invitations  to  Holland  House  until 
Lady  Holland  had  suppressed  an  aggressive  cat  which 
mauled  Rogers  and  which  Brougham  only  kept  at  bay 
with  pinches  of  snuff.  Taken  as  a  whole,  Luttrell  seems 
to  have  been  a  singularly  engaging  and  high-minded 
man,  "  a  philosopher  in  all  things,"  says  Greville,  "  and 
especially  in  religion,"  too  idle  to  cultivate  his  literary 
powers,  fond  of  his  ease  and  dinner,  and  perhaps  dis- 
appointed that  his  abilities  had  not  been  tried  in  public 
affairs.  But  the  presumption  is  that  the  slights  of 
fortune  affected  him  but  little. 

It  was  a  great  thing,  after  all,  to  be  in  universal 
request.  Mr.  Clayden  printed  a  letter  from  Luttrell  to 
Rogers  in  which  he  planned  out  his  autumn  campaign 
with  the  certainty  of  a  skilled  tactician.  "  I  cannot, 
upon  my  soul  I  do  not  think  I  can" — go  to  Trentham, 
he  lamented  to  Lady  Granville.  As  became  a  thorough 
man  of  the  world,  he  admired  sportsmanship  in  others, 
if  not  a  sportsman  himself,  and  his  "Letters  to  Julia" 
contain  some  capital  descriptions  of  shooting  parties 
and  the  hunting  field.  But  London  was  his  favourite 
haunt,  because  there,  as  Greville  puts  it,  "genius  and 
ability  always  maintain  an  ascendancy  over  pomp, 
vanity,  and  the  adventitious  circumstances  of  birth  or 
position."  A  striking  passage  in  the  "  Letters  to  Julia  " 
dwells  upon  another  of  London's  gifts,  immunity  from 
being  overlooked  by  one's  neighbours — a  freedom  that 
a  man  like  Luttrell  would  particularly  appreciate.  He 
knew  his  Paris,  too,  with  an  extensive  and  peculiar 
knowledge,  though  in  1815  he  purposely  lingered  at 
Brighton  on  his  return  to  avoid  being  pestered  as  "the 
last  well-informed  gentleman  "  from  the  French  capital. 


i88  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

A  considerable  crop  of  his  detached  sayings  could  be 
extracted  from  Moore's  diary,  but  most  of  them  read  like 
things  of  the  moment.  He  did  not  disdain  the  pun, 
and  took  great  delight  in  Hood's  achievements  in  that 
line.  The  true  Luttrell  is  to  be  found,  however,  in  his 
familiar  definition  of  the  English  climate — "On  a  fine 
day,  like  looking  up  a  chimney  ;  on  a  rainy  day,  like 
looking  down  it."  His  illustrations  of  current  events 
were  happy.  "A  king  broken  loose"  was  his  summary  of 
the  antics  of  George  IV.  in  Ireland ;  and  he  said  of  a  slim 
lady's  figure  that  it  was  just  enough  to  keep  the  muslin 
together.  The  two  most  disgusting  things  in  the  world, 
because  you  could  not  deny  them,  were  Sir  George 
Warrender's  wealth  and  Croker's  talents. 

Luttrell's  epigrams  had  an  extraordinary  vogue  in  their 
day,  quite  equal  to  Fitzpatrick's.  Through  Moore's 
agency  they  sometimes  appeared  in  the  Times.  The 
happiest  of  them  by  far  was  the  epitaph  he  wrote  at 
Rogers's  house  in  an  album  belonging  to  Wordsworth's 
daughter  : 

"  Killed  by  an  omnibus — why  not  ? 

So  quick  a  death  a  boon  is. 
Let  not  his  friends  lament  his  lot — 
Mors  omnibus  communis" 

Luttrell,  as  well  as  Rogers,  was  provoked  to  epigram  by 
Lord  Dudley's  habit  of  learning  his  speeches  by  heart, 
and  his  verse,  if  less  pointed,  is  better-natured  than  his 
friend's :  * 

"  In  vain  my  affections  the  ladies  are  seeking, 
If  I  give  up  my  heart  there's  an  end  of  my  speaking." 


HENRY   LUTTRELL  189 

Contributions  to  albums  were  more  to  Luttrell's  taste 
than  his  appearances  in  print,  which  were  generally 
anonymous.  His  "Lines  written  at  Ampthill  Park  in 
the  Autumn  of  1818,"  and  dedicated  to  Lord  Holland,  are 
pretty  but  vapid  : 

"  Holland  and  Ampthill — be  the  names  combined 

Through  unborn  ages  :  o'er  this  hallowed  ground 
Ne'er  may  the  spoiler  tread,  nor  wasting  wind 
Nor  axe  among  those  storied  woods  resound." 

Luttrell's  "  Advice  to  Julia  "  or,  as  it  was  finally  called, 
"Letters  to  Julia"  stands  far  higher  than  this  mild 
effusion.  Moore,  who  suggested  the  subject,  thought  it 
"  full  of  well-bred  facetiousness  and  sparkle  of  the  very 
first  water.  It  was  just  what  I  advised  him  to  do,  and 
what  few  could  have  done  half  so  well."  Byron  wrote 
to  Lady  Blessington  that  it  was  "  pointed,  witty  and  full 
of  observation,  showing  in  every  line  a  knowledge  of 
society  and  a  tact  rarely  met  with."  Those  were  the 
opinions  of  friends,  and  they  were  echoed  by  Greville 
and  Macaulay.  Not  so  Gifford,  who  castigated  the  poem 
in  the  Quarterly,  with  severity  but  without  malice. 
"While  it  had  merits,  it  failed  in  interest  and" — here  the 
reviewer  was  evidently  drawing  his  bow  by  no  means  at 
a  venture — "the  accumulated  pleasantries  of  years  had 
apparently  been  lavished  in  an  incautious  fortnight  on 
the  extravagant  Julia."  Lady  Granville  sketches  Rogers 
for  us,  carrying  the  Quarterly  about  under  his  arm,  as 
other  people  their  cocked  hats,  and  ejaculating  "  Poor 
Luttrell  !  it's  all  over  with  him  ;  he  can  never  look  up 
again.  He  never  can  stand  it,  not  being  blest  with  a 
particularly  good  temper."  Luttrell  did  look  up,  and 


190  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

most  sensibly  took  the  reviewer's  advice.  He  reformed 
Julia  from  a  lady  of  battered  reputation  into  a  fashion- 
able widow  ;  he  divided  the  poem  into  four  letters  ;  he 
transposed,  polished,  and  made  additions. 

The  "  Letters  to  Julia  "  have  been  unduly  neglected, 
since  nowhere  else  is  the  London  of  the  Regency  and 
reign  of  George  IV.  more  faithfully  drawn.  Captain 
Gronow  is  quoted  again  and  again  as  an  authority  on 
Almack's ;  but  his  opportunities  of  observing  that  select 
assembly  must  have  been  much  fewer  than  Luttrell's. 
In  easy  though  unambitious  rhyme  the  whole  social 
world  of  the  day  is  passed  under  review.  The  heartless- 
ness  of  Julia  has  driven  Charles  to  give  up  his  winter 
ride  in  Rotten  Row,  or  his  walks  there  in  the  summer  to 
pick  up  all  the  gossip  about  balls  and  marriages,  and 
about  the  proceedings  of  the  committee  at  Almack's  : 

u  Of  passports  just  obtained,  or  missed 
For  Almack's  on  each  Lady's  list  ; 
What  names  of  all  the  young  and  fair, 
High-born  and  rich,  are  blazoned  there  ; 
Who  are  returned  as  sick,  and  who  dead, 
Among  the  luckless  girls  excluded." 

Julia  is  next  invited  to  mount  her  barouche  or  dappled 
grey  and  watch  the  whole  town  thronging  into  the  Park 
on  a  Sunday  afternoon  in  May  : 

"Th'  enfranchised  tradesman,  when  he  stirs, 
Here  jostles  half  his  customers. 
Here,  in  a  rage,  the  Bond-street  spark 
Is  bearded  by  his  father's  clerk  ; 
While  yon  proud  dame  (O  sad  event)  is 
Out-elbowed  by  her  own  apprentice  !  " 


HENRY   LUTTRELL  191 

The  scattering  of  the  "  unumbrella'd"  crowd  by  a  shower 
receives  lively  treatment  ;  and  the  scene  shifts  to  Kens- 
ington Gardens  and  its  alcoved  seats,  the  survivor  of 
which  still  stands  near  Lancaster  Gate.  Luttrell  hits  off 
the  solemnity  of  a  well-behaved  London  crowd  in  an 
amusing  manner.  He  then  passes  under  rapid  review 
the  pastimes  Charles  has  forsaken,  the  gloves  and  fives, 
skating  on  the  Serpentine,  the  charms  of  which  are 
minutely  described  —  fallow-deer  on  the  banks  among 
them.  Charles  has  also  given  up  the  art  of  dressing, 
the  Cossack  trousers,  wasp-like  waist,  buckram-wadded 
shoulders,  and  more  especially  the  cravat. 


'  Have  you,  my  friend/  I've  heard  him  say, 
'  Been  lucky  in  your  turns  to-day  ?  '  " 


In  the  second  letter  Luttrell  gives  a  minute  description 
of  Almack's,  with  Willis  sternly  refusing  admission  to 
those  who  had  left  their  tickets  behind,  or  who  arrived 
after  the  stroke  of  twelve  —  a  ukase  under  which  Lord 
Castlereagh,  Lady  Worcester  and  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton suffered.  Tea,  it  appears,  was  the  only  refreshment, 
and  the  company  much  debated  the  point  —  champagne 
or  hyson.  Some  cynical  reflections  on  the  wearisome- 
ness  of  a  honeymoon  spent  at  a  country  seat  act  as  a 
digression,  but  Luttrell  soon  returns  to  the  French  plays 
in  the  Argyll  Rooms,  Brooks's,  and  the  Opera.  He  is  at 
his  best  in  a  faithful  account  of  the  horrors  of  a  London 
fog,  followed  by  an  appeal  to  chemistry  to 


"  Make  all  our  chimneys  chew  the  cud, 
Like  hungry  cows,  as  chimneys  should." 


192  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Incidentally  Luttrell  shows  a  thorough  understanding 
of  Paris,  its  fetes  and  its  gaming-tables,  and  is  inspired 
by  the  openness  of  vice  in  France  to  a  Hudibrastic  de- 
nunciation of  Government  lotteries,  in  which 

"  Ye,  pious  statesmen,  share  the  plunder, 
And  thus  extracting  good  from  evil, 
Compound  with  God  and  cheat  the  Devil  ! " 

Some  apt  satire  also  attacks  the  London  spark  who  has 
to  go  shooting  because  it  is  the  fashion,  though  he 
would  much  sooner  remain  in  town.  There  follows  a 
fine  apostrophe  to  London,  a  word  "whose  sound 
breathes  independence,"  and 

"To  a  tittle 

The  place  for  those  who  have  but  little  ; 
Here  I  endure  no  throbs,  no  twitches 
Of  envy  at  another's  riches, 
But,  smiling,  from  my  window  see 
A  dozen  twice  as  rich  as  he." 


All  admirably  felt  and  put.  London  in  the  dead  season 
comes  under  rather  prolix  observation,  partly  actual, 
partly  retrospective.  Sadler's  Wells  has  put  on  "  a  melo- 
drame  of  slaughter"  with  "real  water"  from  the  New 
River.  But  criticism  no  longer  descends  from  the  bow- 
window  at  White's 


"  On  some  unconscious  passer-by 
Whose  cape's  an  inch  too  low  or  high, 
Whose  doctrines  are  unsound  in  hat, 
In  boots,  in  trowsers,  or  cravat." 


GOING   TO   WHITE'S 

FROM  THE  CARICATURE  OF  LORD  ALVANLEV  IIV  DIGHTON  IN  THE  1'OSSESSION  OF 
WHITE'S  CLUB 


HENRY  LUTTRELL  193 

The  current  amusements  were  water-parties  in  eight-oar 
funnies,  or  in  barges,  to  the  "  Ship  "  at  Greenwich  or  the 
"  Star  and  Garter  "  at  Richmond ;  excursions  by  steam- 
boat to  Margate,  when  the  start  was  made  from  the 
Tower  at  eight  and  the  destination  reached  at  four,  or 
expeditions  by  coach  to  Brighton.  The  country-side, 
no  longer  haunted  by  Charles,  supplied  Luttrell  with 
his  most  ingenious  couplet : 

"  For,  like  a  shrimp,  a  fox-chase  fails ; 
Both  have  but  sorry  heads  and  tails." 

That  is,  the  ride  to  cover  in  the  cold  early  morning,  and 
the  ride  back  in  the  dark.  The  threat^lhat  Charles  may 
take  to  politics  gives  Luttrell  an  excuse  for  poking  fun 
at  the  House  of  Commons  of  his  time,  which,  but  for  the 
intervention  of  the  bustling  agent,  the  lordly  patron,  and 
the  jobber,  bore  a  close  resemblance  to  the  House  of 
Commons  of  to-day ;  and  the  "  Letters  to  Julia  "  con- 
clude with  some  sage  advice  on  the  retribution  awaiting 
a  flirt  after  she  has  once  married. 

"Crockford  House"  came  as  an  indifferent  sequel  to 
the  "  Letters  to  Julia."  The  prolix  satire  was  occasioned 
by  the  rise  of  the  notorious  gambling-club  in  St.  James's 
Street  in  the  year  1827,  with  all  its  luxury  of  appoint- 
ment. Luttrell  showed  the  poem  in  manuscript  to  Lord 
Sefton,  Henry  de  Roos,  and  Charles  Greville  before 
publishing,  an  act  of  deference  to  society  for  which, 
Moore  prognosticated,  society  would  little  thank  him. 
The  best  thing  in  the  book  is  the  account  of  the  gambler's 
downward  progress  from  the  selling  of  his  consols  to 
exile  on  the  pier  at  Calais.  But  Luttrell's  threats  and 
admonitions,  courageous  though  they  were,  went  un- 


194  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

regarded  by  Crockford,  who  in  a  few  years  amassed  a 
fortune  of  something  like  .£1,200,000.  "Crockford 
House  "  was  the  last  of  Luttr ell's  appearances  in  print, 
but  he  lived  an  amiably  epicurean  existence,  until 
seized  by  a  painful  illness  two  years  before  his  death,  in 
Brompton  Square,  at  the  end  of  1851.  Rogers  was  in 
constant  communication  with  his  old  friend  in  his 
retirement. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

SYDNEY  AND   ROBERT   SMITH 

Sydney  Smith  on  Luttrell — Foston — Combe  Florey — As  a  social 
reformer — The  timidity  of  the  Whigs — "  Peter  Plymley's  Letters  " — 
"  Persecuting  Bishops  " — "  Letters  to  Archdeacon  Singleton  " — A 
licensed  jester — His  letters  to  Lady  Holland — A  parody  of 
Mackintosh — A  sermon  on  temperance — Sydney  Smith's  wit — 
Bobus  Smith — A  suppressed  individuality. 

LUTTRELL  had  no  warmer  admirer  than  Sydney 
Smith,  who  used  him  as  a  screen  for  strokes  at 
Rogers.  Lord  John  Russell,  for  instance,  re- 
ported to  Moore  in  1827  :  "  Sydney  Smith  says  Rogers 
was  in  very  bad  humour  at  Ampthill  House.  Luttrell 
was  helped  to  bread  sauce  before  him."  The  acquaint- 
ance must  have  begun  soon  after  the  young  clergyman 
had  established  himself  at  No.  8,  Doughty  Street,  in  the 
autumn  of  1803,  with  his  contributions  to  the  newly- 
founded  Edinburgh  Review  as  his  main  source  of  income, 
to  which  were  added  the  proceeds  of  his  audacious 
lectures  on  moral  philosophy  delivered  at  the  Royal 
Institution.  Sydney  Smith's  departure  to  the  rectory 
of  Foston-le-Clay,  in  Yorkshire,  on  the  peremptory  sum- 
mons of  Archbishop  Vernon  Harcourt,  in  the  autumn  of 
1808,  did  not  break  off  his  friendship  with  the  man  about 

195 


196  THE,  HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

town  whom  he  accused  of  believing  that  muffins  grew 
on  trees.  Luttrell  soon  paid  him  a  visit,  and  we  are  told 
that  "  Mrs.  Sydney  was  dreadfully  alarmed  about  her 
side  dishes,  and  grew  pale  as  the  covers  were  lifted  ;  but 
they  stood  the  test.  Luttrell  tasted  and  praised."  The 
same  theme  was  elaborated  in  1829  after  Sydney  Smith 
had  migrated  to  Combe  Florey,  in  Somerset,  having 
become  Prebendary  of  Bristol. 

"  Luttrell  came  over  for  the  day,  from  whence  I  know  not, 
but  I  thought  not  from  good  pastures  ;  at  least,  he  had  not  his 
usual  soup-and-pattie  look.  There  was  a  forced  smile  upon 
his  countenance,  which  seemed  to  indicate  plain  roast  and 
boiled  ;  and  a  sort  of  apple-pudding  depression,  as  if  he  had 
been  staying  with  a  clergyman.  ...  He  was  very  agreeable, 
but  spoke  too  lightly,  I  thought,  of  veal  soup.  I  took  him 
aside  and  reasoned  the  matter  with  him  ;  but  to  speak  the 
truth,  Luttrell  is  not  steady  in  his  judgments  on  dishes. 
Individual  failures  with  him  soon  degenerate  into  generic 
objections,  till,  by  some  fortunate  accident,  he  eats  himself 
into  better  opinions." 

Sydney  Smith's  correspondence  is  frequently  that  of 
a  Londoner  in  exile,  writing  to  Londoners  in  posses- 
sion of  their  own  sacred  city.  At  Combe  Florey,  as  he 
told  Macaulay  at  their  first  meeting,  he  was  "  in  a 
delightful  parsonage  about  which  I  care  a  great  deal ; 
and  a  delightful  country,  about  which  I  do  not  care  a 
straw."  "You  may  depend  upon  it,"  he  wrote,  "all 
lives  lived  out  of  London  are  mistakes,  more  or  less 
grievous — but  mistakes."  Yet  he  was  buried  in  the 
country  during  the  greater  part  of  his  active  career, 
except  for  the  five  blissful  years  in  its  prime,  the 
period  of  "  Peter  Plymley's  Letters,"  and  the  thirteen 


SYDNEY   SMITH 

FROM   THE    PAINTING    IIV    HF.NKV    I'EKRONBT    BRH;e;>;,  R.A..IN    THK    NATIONAL    PORTRAIT  GAI.LERV 


SYDNEY  AND   ROBERT  SMITH  197 

serene  years  at  its  close,  the  period  of  the  canonry  at 
St.  Paul's  and  the  "  Letters  to  Archdeacon  Singleton." 
But,  as  he  wisely  wrote,  he  had  not  much  time  left 
on  his  hands  to  regret  London.  At  Foston  he  was 
"village  parson,  village  doctor,  village  comforter, 
village  magistrate,  and  Edinburgh  reviewer."  He 
turned  schoolmaster,  since  he  could  not  afford  to 
educate  his  son ;  he  turned  farmer,  since  he  could  not 
let  his  land.  A  village  carpenter,  who  came  to  him 
for  local  relief,  furnished  the  house  which  Sydney 
Smith  designed  and  built.  Everybody  knows,  or 
should  know,  Bunch,  otherwise  Annie  Kay,  the  little 
garden-girl,  made  like  a  milestone,  who  became  the 
best  butter-maker  in  the  county  and  attended  Sydney 
Smith  in  his  last  illness  ;  Molly  Mills,  who  presided 
out  of  doors ;  the  ancient  green  chariot,  called  the 
Immortal  ;  the  horse  Calamity,  and  Bitty,  the  pet 
donkey.  It  is  sometimes  forgotten  that  Sydney  Smith 
was  one  of  the  first  clergymen  to  establish  allotment 
gardens,  and  to  teach  his  parishioners  to  live  on  sensible 
diet. 

Among  the  more  amenable  surroundings  of  Combe 
Florey,  there  was  more  building  and  more  physicking. 
Hayward  doubts  if  the  health  of  the  village  was 
improved  by  the  blue  pills  Sydney  Smith  delighted  in 
"  darting  into  its  vitals."  But  healing  is  largely  a  matter 
of  faith,  and  the  rustic  mind  believes  in  medicines  nasty 
to  the  taste  and  potent  in  their  operation.  According  to 
a  familiar  story  Sydney  Smith  furnished  his  house  with 
pictures,  and  gravely  consulted  two  Royal  Academicians 
as  to  their  purchase,  adding,  by  way  of  afterthought, 
"Oh,  I  ought  to  mention  that  my  outside  price  is 
thirty-five  shillings."  To  his  garden  he  gave  adventitious 


198  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

charms  for  the  benefit  of  his  London  visitors  by  tying 
oranges  to  the  shrubs,  while  he  improved  his  two 
donkeys  into  deer  by  fitting  them  with  antlers,  and  then 
placed  them  in  front  of  the  windows. 

In  an  essay  written  on  the  appearance  of  the  Memoir 
of  Sydney  Smith  by  his  daughter,  Lady  Holland, 
Hay  ward  claimed  for  him  that  he  was  a  social,  moral,  and 
political  reformer,  second  only  to  Brougham,  and  that 
his  character  of  wit  was  incidental  and  subordinate. 
Time  has  inevitably  reversed  the  importance  of  these  two 
aspects  of  the  man.  All  the  causes  he  advocated  have 
been  won,  and  most  of  them  are  forgotten.  His  jokes, 
whether  correctly  reported  or  distorted,  make  inevitable 
reappearances  in  every  book  dealing  with  the  first  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Yet  there  have  been  few  more 
vigorous  controversialists,  and  certainly  no  more  loyal 
party  servant,  though  it  is  clear  that  he  would  have 
accepted  promotion  at  the  hands  of  Lord  Eldon. 
He  risked  much  to  remove  abuses,  and,  as  he  was  not 
slow  to  remind  his  aristocratic  Whig  friends,  got  next 
to  nothing  by  way  of  reward.  The  living  of  Foston 
was  with  difficulty  wrung  from  Lord  Erskine  by  the 
exertions  of  Lord  and  Lady  Holland ;  the  stall  at 
Bristol  came  from  a  Tory  Chancellor,  Lord  Lyndhurst ; 
Lord  Grey,  who  is  supposed  to  have  said  on  entering 
Downing  Street,  "  Now  we  shall  be  able  to  do  something 
for  Sydney  Smith,"  exhausted  his  benevolence  with  the 
canonry  at  St.  Paul's.  When  the  "  Plymley  Letters" 
appeared  Lord  Holland  reminded  him  that  Swift  "  had 
lost  a  bishopric  for  his  wittiest  performance."  The  jest 
turned  to  earnest  in  1830.  Sydney  Smith's  flippancies 
at  the  expense  of  his  ecclesiastical  superiors  had  been 
confused  with  irreverence  for  things  sacred.  Observa- 


SYDNEY  AND   ROBERT  SMITH  199 

tions  about  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  heaven  were 
attributed  to  him  which  he  always  indignantly  repudi- 
ated, and  the  result  was  that  the  Whigs  shrank  from 
the  clamour  that  his  promotion  would  have  created. 
Two  years  before  his  death  he  summed  up  the  situa- 
tion with  his  invariable  good  sense  :  "  They  showed  a 
want  of  moral  courage  in  not  making  me  a  bishop, 
but  I  must  own  that  it  required  a  good  deal." 

Supreme  common-sense  under  the  guise  of  fun 
constitutes  Sydney  Smith's  chief  merit  as  a  contro- 
versialist. He  excelled  in  rendering  ignorance  and 
prejudice  absurd,  in  riddling  them  with  jocular  similes, 
and  knocking  them  down  with  apologues.  But,  if  he 
is  to  be  compared  with  Swift,  it  must  be,  as  Hayward 
points  out,  to  Swift  without  the  "Tale  of  a  Tub"  or 
"  Gulliver."  For  the  irony  of  the  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's 
he  substituted  chaff,  excellent  chaff,  but  still  chaff. 
Apart  from  errors  in  taste,  "  Peter  Plymley's  Letters " 
suffer  from  repetition  of  argument ;  they  rely  too 
much  on  appeals  to  fear  of  a  French  invasion — a  line 
of  reasoning  more  calculated  to  strengthen  the  country 
in  its  stubbornness  than  to  convert  it — and  they  never 
treat  political  opponents  like  Canning,  who,  after  all, 
was  as  sincere  an  Emancipationalist  as  Sydney  Smith 
himself,  with  decent  civility.  Their  practical  effect  was 
momentary.  The  pamphlet  ran  through  many  editions 
in  1808,  and  frightened  the  Government  of  the  day ; 
the  Catholic  Relief  Act  was  not  passed  until  twenty-one 
years  later,  and  then  it  came  like  a  thief  in  the  night. 
The  fact  is  that  Sydney  Smith  addressed  his  satire  not  to 
the  general  public  but  to  the  coterie  of  Holland  House, 
who  may  possibly  have  appreciated  such  appalling 
classicisms  as  "  political  acupuncturation  "  and  sudarium 


200  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

for  handkerchief.  He  had  easier  game  with  a  narrow 
divine  like  Dr.  Marsh,  and  no  more  righteous  appeal 
for  toleration  has  ever  been  penned  than  "  Persecuting 
Bishops."  The  speech  into  which  he  introduced  the 
immortal  Mrs.  Partington  may  almost  be  said  to  have 
lent  the  Reform  Bill  the  breeze  that  brought  it  into 
port. 

In  the  "  Letters  to  Archdeacon  Singleton "  Sydney 
Smith  appears  as  a  Liberal  whose  enthusiasms  had 
become  exhausted,  and  as  the  chivalrous  defender  of 
ecclesiastical  institutions  which,  in  his  own  way,  he  was 
zealously  strengthening  from  within.  He  poked  legiti- 
mate fun  at  Lord  Melbourne  in  the  disguise  of  a  reformer, 
and  photographed  Lord  John  Russell  for  ever  in  the 
famous  phrase  about  his  assuming  command  of  the 
Channel  Fleet,  with  or  without  ten  minutes'  notice. 
Still,  when  the  Bishops  of  the  Church  of  England 
are  discovered  in  an  innovating  mood,  they  deserve 
encouragement,  not  ridicule.  Sydney  Smith  the 
defender  of  ecclesiastical  things  as  they  were  is  a  less 
admirable  person  than  Sydney  Smith  denouncing  the 
inequalities  of  the  penal  code  or  the  severity  of  the  game 
laws.  His  charity  stopped  at  Methodists. 

Sydney  Smith  talked,  as  he  wrote,  out  of  the  abundance 
of  his  heart.  He  had  little  of  Luttrell's  epigrammatic 
neatness,  and  the  charm  of  his  humour  lay  mainly  in  its 
unexpectedness  and  in  the  heaping  of  one  grotesque 
image  on  another.  He  seldom  abused  his  position  of 
licensed  jester ;  his  talk  was  not  for  display,  and  he 
enjoyed  drawing  out  the  talents  of  silent  and  shy  people. 
At  the  same  time,  he  undeniably  took  aback  by  certain 
of  his  sallies  those  who  were  far  from  stupid  or  strait- 
laced,  and  he  once  drew  upon  himself  a  deserved  and 


SYDNEY  AND   ROBERT  SMITH  201 

historic  snub.  They  were  discussing  at  Holland  House, 
with  the  Regent  present,  who  was  the  wickedest  man 
that  had  ever  lived.  Sydney  Smith  said,  "  The  Regent 
Orleans,  and  he  was  a  priest."  The  Prince's  retort  was 
smashing  :  "  I  should  give  the  honour  to  his  tutor,  the 
Abb6  Dubois,  and  he  was  a  priest,  Mr.  Sydney."  Moore 
hesitated  before  surrendering  to  him,  and  he  struck 
Macaulay  as  being  less  clerical  than  might  have  been 
desired.  Lady  Granville  preferred  him  in  the  pulpit 
to  society ;  Fanny  Kemble  was  sometimes  a  little 
disturbed  by  his  free  and  easy  wearing  of  the  cloth.  But 
he  never  deliberately  wounded.  "  You  have  been  laugh- 
ing at  me  for  the  last  seven  years,"  said  Lord  Dudley  at 
their  final  parting,  "and  you  have  never  said  anything 
which  I  wished  unsaid."  To  Byron  he  was 

"that  o'erwhelming  son  of  Heaven, 
The  very  powerful  parson,  Peter  Pith, 
The  loudest  wit  I  e'er  was  deafened  with." 

His  daughter,  however,  assures  us  that  he  was  shy  when 
he  first  entered  Holland  House,  at  the  age  of  thirty-three. 
Those  were  the  days  when  he  could  not  afford  a  hackney- 
coach,  and  used  to  carry  a  pair  of  dress  shoes  in  his 
pocket  and  change  them  in  the  hall. 

Anyhow,  Sydney  Smith  soon  acquired  an  acknowledged 
position  at  Holland  House;  he  paid  Lady  Holland  in  her 
own  coin — though  the  repartee,  "  Yes,  and  shall  I  sweep 
the  room  ?"  is  probably  apocryphal — with  the  result  that 
they  became  the  warmest  of  friends.  His  letters  to  her, 
which  begin  with  the  whimsical  conjecture  that  the 
"  Plymley  Letters "  were  written  by  Romilly,  Sir  Arthur 
Pigott,  or  Horner,  three  solemn  lawyers,  are,  on  the 


202  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

whole,  the  liveliest  in  the  collection  edited  by  Mrs. 
Austen.  In  one  of  them  he  perpetrated  a  specimen  of 
his  numerous  jokes  against  the  Scotch  : 

"  I  take  the  liberty  of  sending  you  two  brace  of  grouse — 
curious,  because  killed  by  a  Scotch  metaphysician  ;  in  other 
or  better  language,  they  are  mere  ideas,  shot  by  other  ideas, 
out  of  a  pure  intellectual  notion  called  a  gun." 

Presents  of  provender,  the  annual  tribute  of  a  cheese 
among  them,  figure  frequently  in  his  letters,  for  he  was 
fond  of  good  cheer.  But  he  also  discussed  his  prospects 
in  a  spirit  of  manly  independence,  and  lectured  Lady 
Holland  on  the  merits  of  water-drinking.  To  Lord 
Holland  he  sent  the  capital  parody  of  Mackintosh's 
style : 

"  Pepper  may  philosophically  be  described  as  the  dusty  and 
highly  pulverised  seed  of  an  oriental  fruit ;  an  article  rather 
of  condiment  than  of  diet,  which,  dispersed  lightly  over  the 
surface  of  food  with  no  other  rule  than  the  caprice  of  the 
consumer,  communicates  pleasure,  rather  than  affords  nutri- 
tion ;  and,  by  adding  a  tropical  flavour  to  the  gross  and 
succulent  viands  of  the  North,  approximates  the  different 
regions  of  the  earth,  explains  the  objects  of  commerce,  and 
justifies  the  industry  of  man." 

A  drive  with  Lady  Holland  after  he  had  become  Canon 
of  St.  Paul's  inspired  him  with  a  mock  sermon  on 
temperance.  "  Lay  aside  pepper  and  brandy  and  water 
and  baume  de  vie.  A  single  mutton  chop,  a  glass  of  toast 
and  water " — here  she  cried  and  he  stopped ;  but  she 
began  sobbing,  and  he  was  weak  enough  to  allow  two 
glasses  of  sherry,  on  which  she  recovered.  When  Lord 
Holland  died,  he  consoled  himself  with  the  reflection, 


SYDNEY  AND   ROBERT   SMITH  203 

"  I  have  learnt  to  live  as  a  soldier  does  in  war,  expect- 
ing that,  in  any  one  moment,  the  best  and  dearest  may 
be  killed  before  his  eyes." 

The  wit  of  Sydney  Smith  is  more  easily  recoverable 
from  his  letters  than  from  the  various  catalogues  of  his 
jokes.  Many  of  them  have  become  tedious  from  con- 
stant repetition ;  others  have  been  mangled  out  of  all 
knowledge.  As  with  most  professed  humourists,  he  has 
standing  against  him  specimens  of  his  weakest  nonsense 
and  his  most  outrageous  puns.  It  would  have  been 
different  if  they  had  all  reached  the  level  of  his  compli- 
ment to  Mrs.  Tighe  and  Mrs.  Cuffe  :  "Ah  !  there  you  are  ; 
the  cuff  that  every  one  would  wear  and  the  tie  that  no 
one  would  loose."  The  honour  of  having  been  Sydney 
Smith's  most  discriminating  recorder  may  be  fairly  divided 
between  Moore  and  Lord  Houghton.  The  former  gives 
a  vivid  idea  of  his  enjoyment  of  his  own  jokes,  his  transi- 
tions from  gay  to  grave,  and  comedy  to  farce,  but  he  is 
too  otten  content  to  dispose  of  Sydney  Smith's  humor- 
ous illustrations  with  an  "&c."  To  Moore,  however,  we 
owe  the  classical  reply  to  Leslie,  the  Scots  philosopher, 
when  he  complained  that  Jeffrey,  being  in  a  hurry,  had 
disposed  of  his  explanations  on  the  North  Pole  with 
"Oh  1  damn  the  North  Pole."  Sydney  Smith  gravely 
informed  him,  in  confidence,  that  he  had  "once  heard 
Jeffrey  speak  disrespectfully  of  the  Equator."  Lord 
Houghton  has  chiefly  preserved  personalities  ;  Macaulay 
"not  only  overflowed  with  learning,  but  stood  in  the 
slop  " ;  Croker  would  "  dispute  with  the  recording  angel 
on  the  date  of  his  sins." 

Sydney  Smith  once  expatiated  on  India  as  a  glorious 
possession  for  England.  "  My  brother  Bobus  comes  to 
me  one  morning  when  I  am  in  bed,  and  says  he  is  going 


204  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

there  and  wishes  me  good-bye.  I  turn  round,  go  to  sleep 
for  some  time,  and  when  I  wake,  there  he  is  again,  stand- 
ing by  me,  hardly  at  all  altered,  and  with  a  large  fortune." 
In  sober  fact,  Robert  Smith  lived  in  Bombay  as  Advocate- 
General  for  the  best  part  of  seven  years.  His  connection 
with  Holland  House  was  close,  since  he  formed  an 
intimate  friendship  with  Lord  Holland  at  Eton,  and 
married  Miss  Vernon,  the  half-sister  of  Lord  Holland's 
mother  and  daughter  of  the  Whig  member  for  Tavistock. 
His  affection  for  his  younger  brother,  whom  he  helped  in 
the  days  of  straitened  means,  went  deep,  and  they  were 
divided  in  death  by  little  more  than  a  fortnight.  Sir 
Henry  Holland  was  present  at  "the  very  touching  scene 
of  their  last  meeting  with  the  event  in  view  of  both." 

There  must  have  been  something  very  attractive  about 
a  man  who  was  known  through  life  by  his  school  nick- 
name. People  of  taste,  Lord  Lansdowne  among  them, 
preferred  Bobus  Smith  to  his  brother  for  the  very 
conversational  qualities  in  which  Sydney  excelled.  A 
fine  classical  scholar,  he  produced  some  remarkable  verse 
in  the  manner  of  Lucretius.  Lord  Dudley  was  once 
asked  his  opinion  of  the  relative  merits  of  certain  Roman 
poets.  He  began  with  Lucretius,  Catullus  and  Bobus  and 
went  on  without  a  stop  to  Virgil,  Horace,  and  Juvenal. 
Bobus  Smith  could  also  hold  his  own  in  metaphysical 
discussion  against  Mackintosh,  and  he  was  noted  for  his 
happy  turns  of  phrase.  But  Bobus  was  a  suppressed  in- 
dividuality ;  he  was  to  be  seen  now  and  then  at  Holland 
House,  but  rarely  in  any  other  society.  Whether  in  town 
or  in  his  house  at  Cheam — built,  said  Sydney  Smith,  by 
Chemosh,  the  Abomination  of  the  Moabites — he  shut 
himself  up  with  his  classics,  and  was  happiest  in  the 
company  of  children.  An  anxious  letter  from  Sydney 


SYDNEY  AND   ROBERT  SMITH  205 

Smith,  after  Robert  had  failed  to  catch  the  ear  of  the 
House  of  Commons  as  member  for  Grantham,  confirms 
the  idea  that  he  was  the  sort  of  man  to  sit  down  under  a 
rebuff.  But  he  deserves  to  be  remembered  for  other 
reasons  than  as  the  butt  of  Talleyrand's  wit.  When  he 
incautiously  boasted  of  his  mother's  beauty,  he  was 
effectually  silenced  by  the  remark,  "C'e"tait  done  votre 
pere,  monsieur,  qui  n'6tait  pas  si  bien." 


CHAPTER  XV 
MOORE,  BYRON,  AND  SCOTT 

Moore  and  Lady  Holland — The  "  Twopenny  Post  Bag  " — Moore 
and  Sheridan — Byron's  "  Memoirs  " — "  Tommy  dearly  loves  a  lord  " 
— Moore's  independence  of  mind — "  Lalla  Rookh  "  and  the  "  Irish 
Melodies" — "English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers" — The  Drury 
Lane  Committee — Lady  Caroline  Lamb — "  Glenarvon  " — Byron  at 
Holland  House — His  marriage — Lord  Holland's  intervention — "  Such 
a  lovable  person  " — Scott's  quarrel  with  Lord  Holland — His  descrip- 
tion of  Holland  House — "  Tales  of  my  Landlord." 

MOORE'S  patrons,  as  Rogers  called  them,  his 
friends,  as  he  would  have  preferred  them  to  be 
called,  lived  not  so  much  at  Holland  House  as 
at  Donington,  Lord  Moira's  seat,  and  at  Bowood,  Lord 
Lansdowne's.  Still,  he  was  an  intimate  member  of  the 
circle,  and  Lord  Holland's  advice  had  from  time  to  time 
important  bearings  on  his  career.  The  first  entry  in  his 
journal  relating  to  Holland  House  is  dated  January,  1812, 
when  he  was  taken  to  dinner  by  Lord  Moira  and  brought 
back  again.  Moore  must  have  met  the  Hollands  before, 
since  he  had  played  and  sung  his  way  into  English 
society  a  dozen  years  previously,  when  his  presentation 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  whom  he  was  subsequently  to 

attack  with  much  vehemence,  opened  every  Whig  door  to 

206 


THOMAS   MOORK 

PROM    THE   I'AINTING    BV  JOHN   JACKSON,  K.A.,    IN    TI1K    NATIONAL    PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


MOORE,   BYRON,  AND  SCOTT  207 

the  son  of  the  Dublin  grocer.  Thenceforward  he  was  a 
frequent  diner  and  sleeper  at  Holland  House;  he  met 
his  host  and  hostess  on  their  visits  to  Bowood,  and  his 
exile  in  Paris,  owing  to  his  financial  difficulties,  partly 
coincided  with  one  of  their  prolonged  stays  in  the  French 
capital.  He  appears  to  have  regarded  Lady  Holland  with 
a  mixture  of  esteem  and  awe,  duly  chronicling  her  ex- 
ceedingly frank  remarks  on  his  poetry  and  her  praise  of 
Mrs.  Moore's  good  looks.  A  compliment  to  his  Bessy 
went  straight  to  his  heart.  His  self -complaisance  was 
also  touched  by  Lady  Holland's  remark,  when  he  ex- 
pressed his  gratitude  for  Lord  Lansdowne's  kindness — 
this  was  after  he  had  established  himself  at  Sloperton  in 
the  autumn  of  1817  :  "For  those  who  know  you  and  have 
the  means,  it  is  no  more  than  is  due  to  you."  Still,  there 
were  occasions  when  he  quailed ;  in  1821  he  arrived  at 
the  Hollands'  hotel  in  Paris  with  the  intention  of  break- 
fasting, but  she  looked  so  much  out  of  temper  that  he 
dissembled  his  hunger  and  went  off  to  a  restaurant. 

Moore's  relations  with  Lord  Holland  were  of  a  much 
easier  kind.  They  discussed  the  classics  and  poetry 
together,  and  polished  each  other's  translations.  Lord 
Holland  it  was  who  suggested  that  Moore  should  parody 
the  Regent's  letter  to  the  Duke  of  York.  When  the 
Regent  had  become  King,  however,  he  recurred  to  the 
subject  in  a  manner  that  puzzled  Moore,  confessing  that 
the  conduct  of  the  Whigs  in  1812  had  been  anything  but 
prudent,  as  they  must  have  known  that  George  would 
never  forgive  the  personalities  directed  at  him.  That  was 
true  enough,  but  though  the  great  family  connections 
may  have  lamented  the  indiscretion  of  their  ally,  the  rest 
of  us  should  thank  him  for  the  best  light  satire  in  the 
language.  "By  the  by,"  wrote  Byron,  "what  humour 


208  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

what — everything  in  the  Post  Bag  ! "     Humour  there  is 
and  to  spare  in  the  passage  describing 

"  That  awful  hour  or  two 
Of  grave  tonsorial  preparation 
Which,  to  a  fond,  admiring  nation 
Sends  forth,  announced  by  trump  and  drum, 
The  best-wigg'd  Prince  in  Christendom  ! " 

Moore  had  frequent  recourse  to  Lord  Holland  while 
labouring  at  his  Life  of  Sheridan,  and  the  anecdotes  as 
they  appear  in  his  journal  are  frequently  livelier  than 
when  re-trimmed  for  publication.  He  deserves  credit  for 
adhering  to  his  own  view  of  Sheridan's  conduct  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Regency,  though  that  view  was  far  from 
acceptable  to  the  Whig  hierarchy,  and  for  speaking  out 
on  their  neglect  of  the  dramatist  as  he  lay  dying.  His 
failure  to  appreciate  Sheridan's  powers  arose  partly, 
no  doubt,  from  their  superiority  to  his  own,  partly 
because  a  man  of  his  fatal  facility  would  be  naturally 
inclined  to  undervalue  another  who  was  understood  to 
elaborate  both  his  dramas  and  his  conversation  with 
infinite  care.  Rogers  relates  how  once  at  his  house, 
when  Sheridan  was  talking  at  his  best,  Moore,  who  could 
never  keep  still,  broke  up  the  party  by  proposing  an 
adjournment  to  Miss  Lydia  White's. 

Lord  Holland's  scruples  were  in  part  responsible  for  a 
much  and  idly  discussed  proceeding  on  Moore's  part,  the 
destruction  of  Byron's  "  Memoirs."  As  Moore  loosely 
reports  the  conversation,  he  wished  that  Murray's  2,000 
guineas  could  have  been  got  in  any  other  way,  and 
seemed  to  think  that  "  it  was  in  cold  blood  depositing  a 
sort  of  quiver  of  poisoned  arrows  for  a  future  warfare 


MOORE,   BYRON,  AND  SCOTT  209 

upon  private  character,"  though  he  could  only  remember 
a  passage  or  two  that  came  under  that  description.  The 
objection  eventually  carried  weight  with  the  chivalrous 
poet,  and  after  taking,  as  was  his  wont,  numerous  friends 
into  his  confidence,  he  arrived  at  the  high-minded,  if 
irrational,  conclusion  that  the  "  Memoirs "  should  be 
suppressed  and  Murray  repaid.  The  wishes  of  Hob- 
house,  Byron's  most  intimate  friend,  and  Mrs.  Leigh, 
Byron's  sister,  were  strongly  for  immediate  destruction. 
Luttrell,  who,  if  Rogers  can  be  trusted,  was  indifferent  to 
the  whole  thing,  also  voted  for  committal  to  the  flames. 
Accordingly,  at  a  meeting  held  in  Murray's  house,  on 
May  17,  1824,  he  repaid  the  publisher  with  interest  by 
means  of  an  advance  from  the  Longmans :  the  manuscript 
was  returned  to  him,  and  burnt  by  Mr.  Wilmot  Horton 
and  Colonel  Doyle  as  the  representatives  of  Mrs.  Leigh. 
Lord  John  Russell,  one  of  the  many  who  saw  the 
"  Memoirs,"  declared  that  they  contained  little  traces  of 
Byron's  genius  and  no  interesting  details  of  Byron's  life. 
The  loss  to  posterity,  therefore,  was  presumably  small ; 
none  the  less,  the  precipitate  act  made  a  loophole  for 
much  calumny.  Moore's  refusal  of  remuneration  from 
the  family,  in  spite  of  abundant  advice  to  the  contrary,  is 
much  to  his  honour,  though  it  provoked  Rogers  to  the 
bantering  comment,  "  Well,  your  life  may  be  a  good 
poem,  but  it  is  a  damned  bad  matter-of-fact." 

Byron,  in  a  familiar  passage,  asserted  that  "Tommy 
dearly  loved  a  lord."  As  his  most  recent  biographer, 
Mr.  Stephen  Gwynn,  has  pointed  out,  it  would  be  more 
correct  to  say  that  he  dearly  loved  some  lords,  and  those 
of  the  best  type.  His  enjoyment  of  the  society  of  the 
highly  born  was  too  artless  for  toadyism.  They  sought 
him,  besides,  as  much  as  he  sought  them.  It  was  an 
p 


210  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

emotional  age,  and  Moore  tugged  at  its  sensibilities.  His 
singing — or  rather  his  recitation  to  music — of  "  Poor 
Broken  Heart"  so  affected  the  beautiful  Lady  Tullamore 
that  she  left  the  room,  sobbing  violently.  In  conversa- 
tion he  does  not  seem  to  have  played  a  conspicuous  part, 
except  as  a  teller  of  Irish  stories,  but  he  brought  good- 
humour  with  him  wherever  he  went.  He  rose  from 
under  his  crowning  financial  disaster,  the  loss  of  ^6,000, 
through  the  defalcation  of  his  deputy  at  Bermuda,  with 
an  Irishman's  happy  buoyancy ;  and,  until  he  broke 
down  over  his  luckless  "  History  of  Ireland,"  he  cheer- 
fully bore  the  burden  of  much  literary  drudgery.  His 
independence  of  mind  found  expression  in  his  refusal  to 
listen  to  Lord  Holland  and  postpone  the  publication  of 
his  biography  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  until  Ireland 
had  quieted  down,  arguing  with  justice  that  if  he  did  he 
would  find  himself  in  the  position  of  Horace's  rustic. 
That  feeling  was  also  conspicuous  when  his  literary 
pension  of  ^300  a  year  came  under  discussion.  Rogers, 
who  reserved  for  himself  the  luxury  of  blaming  Moore, 
which  he  refused  to  others,  asserted  that  he  used  to  leave 
Mrs.  Moore  at  Sloperton  to  carry  on  the  household  on  a 
guinea  a  week,  while  he  spent  that  amount  on  hackney- 
coaches  and  gloves.  Money  did  not  remain  long  in 
Moore's  pockets,  it  is  true,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was 
important  for  him  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  fashionable 
world  for  which  he  wrote.  So  far  from  neglecting  his 
wife,  it  was  to  shield  her  from  social  slights  that  he  settled 
in  the  country,  and  as  Lord  John  Russell  ornately  put  it, 
the  penniless  actress  "  received  from  him  the  homage  of 
a  lover  from  the  hour  of  their  nuptials  to  that  of  his 
dissolution." 
Though  Moore  luxuriated  in  adulation,  especially  when 


MOORE,   BYRON,  AND  SCOTT  211 

it  assumed  the  form  of  quasi-regal  receptions  in  Dublin, 
his  native  city,  he  made  a  fairly  just  estimate  of  his 
proper  place  on  Parnassus.  He  admitted  the  superiority 
of  Scott  and  Byron,  whom  the  age  regarded  as  no  more 
than  his  equals  ;  his  attitude  towards  his  "  noble  friend," 
as  revealed  in  the  biography,  was  one  of  unqualified 
admiration  for  the  poet,  combined  with  sententious 
abhorrence  of  feminine  influences.  He  never  placed 
"Lalla  Rookh"  and  its  gushing  narrative  among  the 
immortal  creations,  as  contemporary  criticism  was  dis- 
posed to  do.  Twenty  years  after  it  was  written,  he  told 
Longman  that  "  in  a  race  to  future  times  (if  any  thing  of 
mine  could  pretend  to  such  a  run)  those  little  ponies,  the 
'  Melodies,'  will  beat  the  mare  Lalla  hollow."  Such 
sage  self-prophecies  are  rare  in  literature.  Though  the 
"  Melodies  "  may  have  fallen  into  temporary  neglect,  they 
are  bound  to  live,  at  any  rate  on  Irish  soil,  in  spite  of 
their  lack  of  concentration  and  floridity  of  taste.  At  his 
best,  as  in  "  The  young  May  moon  is  beaming,  love,"  or 
"  Dear  Harp  of  my  Country,  in  darkness  I  found  thee," 
he  is  worthy  to  be  the  poet  of  a  nation.  The  "  Melodies" 
were  written  to  be  sung,  therefore  they  were  lucid  and 
appealed  widely  rather  than  deeply.  Moore  never  reached 
genuine  inspiration,  but  he  did  many  things  exceedingly 
well.  The  "  History  of  Captain  Rock"  is  a  brilliant  piece 
of  prose  satire,  and  much  quiet  fun  lurks  in  the  pages  of 
"  The  Fudge  Family  in  Paris." 

Lord  Holland's  acquaintance  with  two  illustrious  men 
of  letters,  Byron  and  Scott,  opened  ominously.  The 
former  imagined  that  the  famous  criticism  of  his  "  Hours 
of  Idleness  "  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  January,  1808, 
was  inspired  by  Holland  House,  and  that  George  Lamb, 
Lord  Melbourne's  youngest  brother,  was  its  author. 


212  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

Brougham  really  wrote  it,  in  his  usual  style  of  heavy  and 
malignant  facetiousness.  Byron,  as  is  well  known,  drank 
three  bottles  of  claret,  and  set  to  work  on  the  reply, 
"English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers."  In  it  he 
satirised  Holland  House,  where  "Scotchmen  dine,  and 
duns  are  kept  aloof."  "  Bad  enough  and  on  mistaken 
grounds  besides "  was  his  subsequent  annotation  at 
Geneva,  and  on  Rogers's  suggestion  he  suppressed  the 
fifth  edition,  and  told  Murray  that  the  poem  must  never 
be  republished. 

Before  this  handsome  atonement  Byron  had  been 
introduced  to  Lord  Holland  by  Rogers.  Anxious,  no 
doubt,  to  secure  recruits  for  the  Whig  Party,  Lord 
Holland  supplied  Byron  with  hints  for  his  first  and  most 
successful  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords,  on  the  Bill  for 
suppressing  the  riotous  propensities  of  the  Nottingham 
frame-workers,  and  they  became  fast  friends.  He 
received,  in  return  for  his  kindness,  a  copy  of  a  "  thing," 
accompanied  by  a  witty  letter,  the  "  thing  "  being  no  less 
than  the  volume  containing  the  two  first  cantos  of 
"Childe  Harold."  In  the  following  year  came  the 
invitation  of  the  Drury  Lane  committee,  at  the  instance 
of  Lord  Holland,  to  write  the  opening  address.  Byron's 
letters  show  the  amicability  with  which  he  accepted  the 
commission,  and  the  good  temper  in  which  he  took  the 
suggestions  as  to  amendments  pressed  on  him  by  Lord 
Holland  and  Whitbread.  Combe  the  brewer,  the  third 
member  of  the  committee,  appears  to  have  been  more 
interested  in  vats  than  in  verses.  The  end  of  it  all  was 
that  Elliston  murdered  the  address,  and  that  the  mighty 
Perry  of  the  Morning  Chronicle  censured  it  as  unmusical 
in  parts,  and  in  general  tame  ;  not  altogether,  it  must  be 
confessed,  without  reason. 


MOORE,   BYRON,  AND  SCOTT  213 

"Holland's  society  is  very  good,"  wrote  Byron  in  1813; 
"  you  always  see  some  one  or  other  in  it  worth  know- 
ing." Though  he  rebelled  against  the  "  damned  screen  " 
placed  before  the  fire  by  Lady  Holland,  he  held  her  in 
high  regard,  and  was  careful  to  keep  in  her  good  graces 
by  means  of  presentation  copies.  But  they  laboured  in 
vain  to  reconcile  him  to  Lord  Carlisle,  his  guardian. 

Holland  House  was  destined  to  set  its  mark  on  Byron's 
life  ;  for  it  was  there,  according  to  her  most  coherent 
version  of  the  event,  that  he  first  had  speech  of  Lady 
Caroline  Lamb,  after  she  had  turned  from  him,  on  her 
introduction  by  Lady  Westmorland,  on  the  ground  that 
he  was  "mad,  bad,  and  dangerous  to  know."1  Lady 
Elizabeth  Foster,  afterwards  Duchess  of  Devonshire, 
described  Lady  Caroline  as  a  "wild,  delicate,  odd, 
delightful  person,  unlike  everything."  Neither  her 
parents,  Lord  and  Lady  Bessborough,  nor  her  easy- 
going husband,  subsequently  Lord  Melbourne  and  Prime 
Minister,  appear  to  have  regarded  her  as  a  responsible 
being.  None  of  them  seems  to  have  interfered  when 
she  threw  herself  at  Byron's  head,  as  the  saying  is,  and 
paraded  her  passion  throughout  a  London  season. 
Rogers  has  told  the  unhappy  story  of  her  private  assig- 
nations and  public  displays  of  jealousy,  of  their  driving 
off  together  from  parties,  and  of  her  waylaying  him  in 
the  street  after  receptions  to  which  she  was  not  invited. 
The  affair  culminated  in  the  supposed  attempt  to  stab 
herself  at  Lady  Heathcote's  ball — "  Ye  Dagger  Scene  of 


*  Thus  Lady  Caroline  to  Lady  Morgan.  She  gave  a  totally 
different  account  of  her  first  meeting  with  Byron  in  a  letter  to 
Medwin  (Byron's  "  Letters  and  Journals/'  edited  by  Mr.  R.  E. 
Prothero,  vol.  ii.,  Appendix),  but  it  was  written  some  years  after  the 
event,  and  when  her  mind  had  become  affected. 


214  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

indifferent  memory,"  as  Byron  called  it.  In  that  strange 
human  document,  the  letter  she  wrote  to  Medwin  on  the 
appearance  of  his  scandalous  "  Recollections  of  Lord 
Byron,"  Lady  Caroline  denies  that  she  tried  to  stab 
herself ;  she  ran  out  of  the  room  with  the  knife  in  her 
hand,  and  was  cut  as  they  snatched  it  from  her.  The 
correction  is  credible  but  unimportant. 

As  to  their  loves,  enough  of  the  correspondence  has 
been  preserved  to  show  that  the  adoration  was  all  on 
Lady  Caroline's  side,  though  she,  poor  creature,  believed 
the  contrary.  Byron  was  first  attracted  by  "  the 
cleverest,  most  agreeable,  absurd,  amiable,  perplexing, 
dangerous,  fascinating  little  being  that  lives  now,  or  ought 
to  have  lived  two  thousand  years  ago."  But  he  soon  felt 
that  she  was  making  him  ridiculous,  and  judiciously  tried 
to  divert  her  from  declarations  of  the  grand  passion  to 
criticism  of  the  poems  of  Miss  Milbanke,  his  future  wife, 
to  whom  in  an  evil  hour  she  introduced  him.  His  letter, 
written  when  Lady  Bessborough  determined  to  take  her 
off  to  Ireland,  contains  an  offer  of  elopement,  but  it  is 
evidently  perfunctory.  Unfortunately,  Lady  Caroline 
continued  the  siege  from  over-seas,  and  so  drew  down 
upon  herself  the  cutting  dismissal,  composed  on  Lady 
Oxford's  notepaper,  which  she  published,  in  part  at  least, 
in  "  Glenarvon."  There  followed  the  burning  of  him  in 
effigy  at  Brocket  Hall,  and,  though  not  until  after  further 
meetings,  the  novel.  Lady  Holland's  reception  of 
"  Glenarvon  "  has  already  been  mentioned  ;  Byron's  was 
brutal.  "  As  for  the  likeness,"  he  wrote  to  Moore,  "  the 
picture  can't  be  good  ;  I  did  not  sit  iong  enough." 
Yet,  despite  "  Glenarvon,"  Lady  Caroline  wrote  Byron 
an  affectionate,  though  none  too  lucid,  epistle  when  he 
was  about  to  separate  from  his  wife,  and,  with  more 


MOORE,   BYRON,  AND  SCOTT  215 

wisdom,  urged  him  to  suppress  "  Fare  thee  well."  From 
the  letter  to  Medwin  it  may  be  gathered  that  the  story  of 
her  losing  her  reason  from  the  shock  of  meeting  Lord 
Byron's  funeral  on  its  way  to  Newstead,  while  she  was 
out  driving  near  Brocket,  has  been  improved  in  the 
telling.  Her  husband,  who  was  riding  ahead,  met  the 
funeral,  but  did  not  inform  her  of  it  at  the  time  ;  and 
it  was  the  news  of  his  death  rather  than  the  sight  of  his 
hearse  that  overthrew  her  ill-regulated  but  by  no  means 
ignoble  intellect. 

The  Lady  Caroline  episode  made  no  difference,  it 
would  seem,  to  Byron's  position  in  tolerant  Holland 
House.  We  find  him  dining  the  following  year  in  the 
town  house  in  St.  James's  Square,  and  meeting  Sir 
Samuel  and  Lady  Romilly,  Sir  Samuel  Bentham,  Jeremy 
Bentham's  brother  and  a  naval  architect,  Horner,  "  Con- 
versation" Sharp,  Sir  George  Philips,  a  Lancashire 
manufacturer  and  friend  of  Sydney  Smith,  and  Lord 
John  Russell,  "  all  good  men  and  true."  Shortly  after- 
wards he  met  Thomas  Campbell,  when  Lord  Holland, 
who  was  carrying  a  censer,  exclaimed  to  them,  "  Here  is 
some  incense  for  you."  "Take  it  to  Lord  Byron," 
answered  the  sensitive  poet ;  "  he  is  used  to  it " — a  remark 
justly  rebuked  by  Byron  in  his  journal  as  uncharitable. 
This  was  in  December,  1813. 

In  January,  1815,  Byron  married,  and  with  matrimony 
his  financial  difficulties  accumulated.  Shortly  before  his 
separation  from  Lady  Byron  he  sent  Lady  Holland  a  set 
of  drawings  by  Stothard,  on  the  subjects  of  his  poems. 
She  told  Macaulay,  on  one  of  his  earliest  visits  to  Hol- 
land House,  that  she  returned  them  with  the  injunction 
that  if  Byron  gave  them  away,  he  ought  to  give  them  to 
Lady  Byron.  "  But  he  said  he  would  not,  and  that,  if  I 


216  THE   HOLLAND  HOUSE  CIRCLE 

did  not  take  them  the  bailiffs  would,  and  that  they  would 
be  lost  in  the  general  wreck."  The  proceeding  was  rather 
cavalier,  since  the  drawings  appear  to  have  been  a  present 
to  Lady  Byron  from  Murray. 

About  that  time  Lady  Byron  asked  Lord  Holland  to 
bring  about  a  private  and  amicable  arrangement  between 
her  husband  and  herself.  He  evidently  accepted  the 
mission,  since  on  March  3,  1816,  he  forwarded  to  Byron 
the  terms  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Lushington,  her  legal  adviser, 
with  an  appeal  to  him  to  save  both  parties  from  the 
"trouble,  inconvenience,  vexation,  and  expense  of  a 
suit."  The  conditions  were  that  Byron  should  claim 
immediately  a  pecuniary  profit  of  ^500  a  year  in  conse- 
quence of  his  marriage  with  Lady  Byron,  and  that  at  the 
death  of  his  mother,  Lady  Noel,  he  would  be  benefited 
to  from  ^3,500  to  .£4,000  per  annum.  Byron  ultimately 
signed  the  deed  of  separation,  and  on  April  i6th  left 
England  for  ever.  He  generously  refused  to  benefit 
from  his  wife's  fortune,  but  when  death  carried  off  his 
detested  mother-in-law  he  had  no  scruples  about  taking 
half  her  property  on  the  decision  of  two  arbitrators,  Sir 
Francis  Burdett  and  Lord  Dacre.  Lord  Holland's  inter- 
vention, therefore,  had  been  of  service  to  him. 

It  remained  for  Lady  Holland  to  make  a  feminine  but 
hardly  vital  contribution  to  the  Byronic  controversy. 
When  Moore  asked  her  if  Lady  Byron  really  loved 
Byron,  the  reply  was  that  she  must  have  done  so.  "  He 
was  such  a  lovable  person.  I  remember  him,"  said  she, 
"  sitting  there  with  that  light  upon  him,  looking  so 
beautiful ! "  Byron,  for  his  part,  kept  the  Hollands  in 
affectionate  recollection,  and  rejoiced  in  his  exile  when 
he  heard  that  a  windfall  had  come  to  them.  He  also 
asked  Lord  Holland  to  use  his  influence  to  prevent 


MOORE,   BYRON,  AND  SCOTT  217 

Elliston  from  putting  "  Marino  Faliero  "  on  the  boards 
at  Drury  Lane,  but  the  actor  carried  his  point  by  forcing 
Lord  Eldon  to  hold  a  court  on  his  doorstep,  and  Byron 
took  refuge  in  the  epigram  : 


u  Behold  the  blessings  of  a  lucky  lot ! 
My  play  is  damned  and  Lady  Noel  not" 


Lord  Holland's  quarrel  with  Sir  Walter  Scott  arose  out 
of  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords.  The  author  of 
"  Waverley  "  had  dined  at  Holland  House  during  a  visit 
to  London  in  1806,  after  refusing  to  go  there  before,  to 
avoid  suspicion  of  changing  his  Tory  principles.  He 
thought  himself  justified  three  years  later  in  making  it  a 
personal  as  well  as  a  fraternal  matter  when  Lord  Holland 
joined  Lord  Lauderdale  in  condemning  the  pension  which 
was  to  be  bestowed  on  Scott's  brother  Thomas  on  the 
abolition  of  his  extractorship  to  the  Court  of  Session. 
Lord  Melville  had  defended  what  looked  uncommonly 
like  a  job  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  reward  of  literary 
merit.  He  was  twitted  by  Lord  Holland  with  Scotland's 
neglect  of  Burns,  and  reminded  that  Thomas  Scott  had 
been  appointed  to  a  post  which  he  had  good  reason  to 
believe  was  about  to  be  suppressed.  The  opposition 
failed,  but  Scott  was  bitterly  offended.  A  few  weeks 
later  Lord  Holland  met  him  at  the  Friday  Club  in 
Edinburgh,  a  society  formed  on  the  model  of  Dr. 
Johnson's  club  at  the  "Turk's  Head,"  and  there  Scott, 
as  he  wrote  triumphantly  to  his  brother,  "  cut  him  with 
as  little  remorse  as  an  old  pen."  Jeffrey,  who  was 
present,  remembered  the  scene  as  most  unpleasant,  and 
one  for  which  he  had  been  wholly  unprepared  ;  it  was 


2i8  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

the  only  instance  of  rudeness  he  ever  witnessed  in  Scott 
during  a  lifelong  familiarity. 

Time,  however,  cooled  Scott's  resentment,  and  eighteen 
years  afterwards — that  is,  in  1828 — he  dined  and  slept  at 
Holland  House  after  an  afternoon  at  the  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire's at  Chiswick.  He  contrived  to  make  a  demi-toilette 
on  his  arrival  rather  than  drive  all  the  way  to  London — 
a  detail  illustrative  both  of  easy-going  manners  and 
difficulties  of  locomotion.  He  found  the  dinner  most 
agreeable,  and  next  morning  wandered  about  the 
grounds  with  Rogers.  "  It  will  be  a  great  pity,"  he 
commented  in  his  diary, 

"  when  this  ancient  house  must  come  down  and  give  way  to 
rows  and  crescents.  It  is  not  that  Holland  House  is  fine,  as 
a  building — on  the  contrary,  it  has  a  tumbledown  look  ;  and, 
though  decorated  with  the  bastard  Gothic  of  James  I.'s  time, 
the  front  is  heavy.  But  it  resembles  many  respectable 
matrons  who,  having  been  absolutely  ugly  during  youth, 
acquire  by  age  an  air  of  dignity.  But  one  is  chiefly  affected 
by  the  air  of  deep  seclusion  which  is  spread  around  the 
domain." 

It  was  a  source  of  regret  to  Scott  that  he  could  not  go 
to  Holland  House  when  he  passed  through  London  on 
his  last  journey  abroad.  But  when  he  reached  Rome  he 
told  a  friend  that  Lord  Holland  was  the  most  agreeable 
man  he  had  ever  met,  remarkable  for  his  critical  faculties, 
his  knowledge  of  English  authors,  and  his  power  of 
language,  which  adorned  his  thoughts  "as  light  streaming 
through  coloured  glass  heightens  the  brilliancy  of  the 
objects  it  falls  upon."  Holland  House,  on  its  side, 
received  the  "  Waverley "  novels  in  a  far  less  captious 
spirit  than  that  which  animated  a  prominent  member  of 


MOORE,   BYRON,   AND  SCOTT  219 

the  circle,  Sydney  Smith.  When  the  first  part  of  "Tales 
of  my  Landlord  "  appeared,  Lord  Holland  was  asked  his 
opinion.  "  Opinion  ?  "  he  replied  to  Murray  ;  "  we  did 
not  one  of  us  go  to  bed  all  night,  and  nothing  slept  but 
my  gout." 


CHAPTER  XVI 
AUTHORS   AND   WITS 

Campbell  and  the  King  of  Clubs — A  present  from  Lady  Holland 
— "A  somewhat  awful  meeting" — An  estrangement  and  reconcilia- 
tion— Southey  and  Whig  principles — From  the  Edinburgh  to  the 
Quarterly — Hallam,  the  "  bore  contradictor  " — His  correspondence 
with  Lord  Webb  Seymour — A  domestic  martinet — Jekyll  and  his 
puns — A  protege  of  George  IV. — Jekyll  on  Holland  House — Lord 
Alvanley  and  Talleyrand — Chief  of  the  ton — Alvanley's  money 
affairs — His  jokes  and  appearance — Alvanley  as  a  politician. 

THOMAS  CAMPBELL,  minor  poet,  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Lord  Holland  through  Perry, 
the  editor  of  the  Morning  Chronicle,  in  1801, 
when  he  paid  his  first  visit  to  London,  after  the 
"  Pleasures  of  Hope "  had  established  his  reputation. 
An  invitation  to  the  King  of  Clubs  followed,  and  the 
poet  enthusiastically  hailed  it  as  an  era  in  his  life.  He 
never  met  a  man  who  so  reconciled  him  to  an  hereditary 
aristocracy  as  Lord  Holland,  or  one  who  gave  him  a 
higher  idea  of  human  nature  than  Mackintosh.  Later 
impressions  of  the  club  were  not  so  favourable ;  you 
could  have  too  much  of  brilliant  talk  when  all  talked  for 
effect.  Campbell  had  caught,  however,  the  infection  of 
London  ;  he  brought  his  bride  to  Sydenham,  and  the  rest 


AUTHORS  AND  WITS  221 

of  his  life  was  practically  spent  within  sound  of  Bow 
bells. 

In  the  days  of  Campbell's  early  indigence  he  received 
a  present  from  Lady  Holland,  to  which,  full  thirty  years 
afterwards,  he  referred  with  deep  feeling.  "  Everything 
that  is  false  in  my  pride  gives  way  to  the  gratitude  which 
I  owe  to  those  friends  who  rallied  round  me  at  that 
period  ;  and  it  would  be  black  ingratitude  if  I  could 
forget  that,  in  one  of  those  days,  I  was  saved  from  taking 
a  debtor's  lodgings  in  the  King's  Bench  by  a  magnificent 
present  which  the  Rev.  Sydney  Smith  conveyed  to  me 
from  Lady  Holland."  The  amount  of  the  gift  is 
unknown,  but  from  Sydney  Smith's  correspondence  it 
may  be  gathered  that  Campbell,  from  motives  of  honour- 
able delicacy,  hesitated  before  he  accepted  it.  In  1805, 
through  the  influence  of  Fox,  Lord  Holland,  and  Lord 
Minto,  he  received  a  Crown  pension  of  £200  a  year,  and 
was  able  to  add  an  exultant  postscript,  ending  "  God  save 
the  King  1 "  to  a  despondent  letter  to  Scott 

The  first  decade  of  the  Holland  House  circle  is 
amusingly  etched  in  Beattie's  "  Life  of  Campbell."  The 
poet  arrived  to  dinner  in  the  spring  of  1806  arrayed  in 
a  yellow  waistcoat  which  he  had  stolen  from  his  friend 
Richardson.  He  was  introduced  to  Fox,  walked  arm-in- 
arm  with  him  round  the  room,  and  discussed  Virgil  with 
him.  Campbell  hardly  knew,  if  his  correspondent  would 
excuse  the  phrase,  whether  he  was  standing  on  his  head 
or  his  feet.  Fox  invited  the  poet  to  St.  Anne's  Hill,  and 
told  Lord  Holland  that  he  liked  Campbell;  he  was  so 
right  about  Virgil — their  point  of  agreement  being  that 
the  charge  of  monotony  was  unjustly  brought  against 
the  characters  in  the  "  ,/Eneid."  Campbell  was  struck  by 
the  electric  quickness  and  wideness  of  Fox's  attention  in 


222  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

conversation  ;  at  a  table  of  eighteen  persons  nothing  that 
was  said  escaped  him.  Two  years  afterwards  he  spent 
half  the  day  at  Holland  House,  "a  somewhat  awful 
meeting.  Lady  Holland  is  a  formidable  woman.  She 
is  cleverer  by  several  degrees  than  Buonaparte."  Camp- 
bell, however,  walked  about  for  an  hour  with  her,  almost 
alone,  and  never  did  he  feel  "  such  self-possession,  such  a 
rattle  of  tongue,  and  springtide  of  conversation  so  per- 
fectly joyous."  A  curious  colloquy,  more  especially  as 
Campbell,  by  his  own  confession,  was  dressed  like  a 
barber's  clerk,  with  a  cravat  resembling  a  halter.  The 
bard's  taste  in  costume  inclined  to  floridity.  Byron 
describes  him  at  Holland  House  in  1811  as  "dressed  to 
sprucery.  A  blue  coat  becomes  him — so  does  his  new 
wig.  He  really  looked  as  if  Apollo  had  sent  him  a  birth- 
day suit,  or  wedding  garment,  and  was  witty  and  lively." 
An  instance  of  his  humour  that  night  was  his  allusion  to 
Madame  de  StaeTs  new  lover,  Rocca,  as  "  the  only  proof 
he  had  seen  of  her  good  taste."  On  the  next  page  we 
get  his  onslaught  on  Byron  in  the  matter  of  incense. 
Campbell  had,  in  1809,  paid  Lord  Holland  the  graceful 
if  insipid  compliment  of  dedicating  to  him  "  Gertrude  of 
Wyoming."  But  he  took  the  huff  on  the  same  occasion, 

because  " had  shown  him  a  face  of  snow  and  ice," 

and  absented  himself  from  Holland  House.     For  " " 

we  shall  probably  be  not  far  from  the  mark  if  we  read 
"John  Allen."  Both  were  Scots,  both  irascible. 

Friendly  relations  continued  with  Lord  Holland,  how- 
ever, and  when  in  1837  Campbell's  nephew  received  a 
situation  of  ^300  a  year  in  the  Customs,  Campbell, 
imagining  that  the  interest  of  Holland  House  had  been 
at  work  with  the  Whig  leaders,  poured  forth  his  gratitude. 
The  reply  undeceived  him,  but  its  amiability  appears 


AUTHORS  AND  WITS  223 

to  have  persuaded  him  to  renew  his  visits  during  the 
remainder  of  Lord  Holland's  life.  He  excused  himself 
from  subscribing  to  his  patron's  monument  because  the 
step  would  entail  a  corresponding  withholding  of  money 
from  the  Mendicity  Society.  Certain  it  is  that  five-pound 
notes  were  never  too  plentiful  with  Campbell,  particularly 
in  the  years  of  his  decline,  when  he  had  sunk  into  a 
bookseller's  hack  and  the  fire  which  had  animated  his 
war-lyrics  had  long  since  flickered  out. 

Southey,  whose  complacent  confidence  in  his  own 
immortality  was  in  complete  contrast  to  Campbell's  self- 
mistrust,  came  in  for  bitter  denunciation  as  a  renegade 
from  Whig  principles.  Lord  Holland  assailed  him  in 
the  passable  epigram: 

"Our  Laureate  Bob  defrauds  the  King, 
He  takes  his  cash  and  does  not  sing  ; 
Yet  on  he  goes,  I  know  not  why, 
Singing  for  us  who  do  not  buy." 

But  Southey's  abandonment  of  those  principles  of  the 
French  Revolution  which  brought  him  in  his  youth 
under  the  lash  of  the  Anti- Jacobin  was  really  one  of 
gradual  conviction.  His  Whiggism  lasted,  no  doubt, 
beyond  the  death  of  Pitt.  He  had  the  run  of  the 
library  at  Holland  House,  much  to  his  advantage  when 
he  was  writing  about  the  Spanish  Peninsula,  and  it  was 
to  Holland  House  he  looked  when  the  Whigs  had  office 
and  place  to  give  away.  Lady  Holland  told  him  that  the 
rule  at  St.  Anne's  Hill  was  to  read  aloud  till  eleven,  but 
that  when  "Madoc"  was  on  hand  they  often  read  till  the 
clock  struck  twelve.  The  author  accepted  this  some- 
what incredible  anecdote  without  demur.  Southey  con- 


224  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

sidered  that  he  had  a  promise  from  Fox,  and  looked 
upon  his  death  as  a  personal  loss,  adding,  however, 
significantly,  that  he  had  lived  a  year  too  long.  How- 
ever, while  the  Grenville  Ministry  was  tottering  to  its 
fall,  Southey's  friend  Charles  Wynn  "picked  something 
out  of  the  fire  for  him"  in  the  shape  of  a  Crown  pension 
of  £200,  reduced  by  fees  to  ^144.  In  a  letter  to  Wynn, 
acknowledging  his  kindness,  Southey  frankly  avowed  his 
strong  aversion  to  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics  on 
the  ground  that  toleration  was  unknown  to  them. 

Southey's  opinions,  like  those  of  Coleridge  and  Words- 
worth, were  evidently  on  the  turn,  and  before  the  end  of 
1807  he  wrote  to  Scott  that  he  had  scarcely  one  opinion 
in  common  with  the  Edinburgh  Review  on  any  subject. 
It  needed  only  the  invitation  of  two  years  later  to  become 
a  contributor  to  the  Quarterly  to  confirm  and  strengthen 
Southey  in  his  Toryism.  He  appeared  at  Holland  House 
so  late  as  1813,  where  Byron  found  him  to  be  "a  person 
of  very  epic  appearance,  and  has  a  fine  head — as  far  as 
outside  goes,  and  wants  nothing  but  taste  to  make  the 
inside  equally  attractive."  Established  at  Keswick,  and 
with  every  hour  of  the  day  devoted  to  literary  labour, 
Southey  had  but  few  opportunities  of  visiting  London, 
and  the  presumption  must  be  that  on  those  rare  occasions 
he  did  not  feel  much  at  home  in  Liberal  society. 

Of  all  the  habitues  of  Holland  House,  Hallam  the 
historian  is  the  most  elusive.  The  anecdotes  about  him 
are  concerned  chiefly  with  his  disputatiousness.  The 
parentage  of  his  nickname,  the  "bore  contradictor,"  lies 
in  dispute.  But  Sydney  Smith  originated  the  definition 
of  the  electric  telegraph  as  a  device  that  would  enable 
Hallam  to  contradict  somebody  at  Liverpool;  and  Sydney 
Smith,  too,  facetiously  described  the  historian  as  jumping 


AUTHORS  AND  WITS  225 

out  of  bed  and  wrangling  with  the  watchman  about  the 
hour  of  the  night.  But  the  terms  of  respect  in  which 
most  of  his  contemporaries  allude  to  Hallam  forbid  a 
strict  application  of  these  pleasantries,  and  we  learn  from 
Guizot  that  his  character  mellowed  with  age.  Moore 
evidently  set  high  store  by  his  opinions,  though  the 
journal  is  frequently  content  with  the  brief  entry,  "Met 
Hallam,"  or  the  mention  of  his  name  among  the  diners 
at  some  celebrated  house.  Hallam  does  not  seem  to 
have  shone  in  conversation,  though  he  could  produce  apt 
stories  from  a  retentive  memory.  When  his  own  subject 
was  started  he  was  hard  to  hold,  and  a  party  which  met 
in  honour  of  one  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  rare  visits  to 
London  saw  the  Wizard  of  the  North  sitting  silently  by 
while  Hallam  descanted  on  some  topic  that  Mackintosh 
had  put  forth.  Still,  he  seems  to  have  been  much  appre- 
ciated by  Whig  and  literary  society,  and  Bowood  knew 
him  as  intimately  as  Holland  House. 

Hallam  lived  mainly  in  and  for  his  books.  He  took 
interest  in  current  politics,  his  views  being  essentially 
those  of  moderate  commonsense,  and  when  the  Grey 
Ministry  came  into  power,  he  astonished  his  friends  by 
declaring  against  Reform.  But  his  real  world  was  his 
study  in  Wimpole  Street,  "the  long  unlovely  street"  of 
"In  Memoriam,"  where  his  three  great  works  were  pro- 
duced. Hallam's  correspondents  among  the  frequenters 
of  Holland  House  were,  as  might  be  expected,  serious 
men  like  Horner,  Wishaw,  and  Lord  Webb  Seymour,  the 
learned  brother  of  the  equally  studious  Duke  of  Somerset, 
a  man  of  high  thinking  but  small  achievement,  who  dwelt 
chiefly  near  Edinburgh,  in  close  intellectual  companion- 
ship with  Professor  Playfair.  Hallam  contributed  a 
character  of  that  laborious  inquirer  after  truth,  whose 
Q 


226  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

sole  literary  accomplishment  was  a  few  pages  on  geology, 
to  Horner's  "Memoirs  and  Correspondence,"  and  it 
is  a  graceful  monument  to  the  friendship  of  the  three. 
Lady  Guendolen  Ramsden's  "Correspondence  of  Two 
Brothers,"  Lord  Webb  and  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  proves 
how  much  the  historian  relied  on  the  judgment  of  Lord 
Webb,  not  only  as  to  matters  literary,  but  also  on  the 
whole  conduct  of  life.  He  wrote  fully  to  Lord  Webb  on 
the  progress  of  the  "Middle  Ages,"  complaining  at  first 
that  the  scheme  was  indefinitely  extensive,  and  in  many 
of  its  details  little  adapted  to  his  inclination,  but  in  1818, 
on  the  eve  of  its  publication,  serenely  confident  of  its 
success.  When  it  did  appear  he  received  a  budget  of 
criticism,  including,  it  would  seem  from  his  reply,  the 
grave  charge  that  the  perusal  of  the  book  was  a  heavy 
task,  with  supreme  good-humour.  Sydney  Smith's 
saying  that  Hallam  had  less  modesty  than  any  man  he 
had  ever  seen  is  unintelligible  except  on  the  score  of 
personal  animosity. 

Hallam  laid  down  his  pen  after  publishing  his  "Intro- 
duction to  the  Literature  of  Europe  during  the  Fifteenth, 
Sixteenth,  and  Seventeenth  Centuries"  in  1837-39.  He 
lived  twenty  years  longer,  and  a  pleasing  picture  of  the 
historian  in  his  retirement  is  given  in  "Mrs.  Brookfield 
and  her  Circle."  Hallam  seems  to  have  been  something 
of  a  domestic  martinet,  inclined  to  be  fussy  over  the 
cooking  of  whitebait,  and  of  such  fixed  habits  that  when 
he  travelled  with  his  family  they  had  to  take  surreptitious 
lunches  by  turns  in  the  rumble  of  the  coach.  But  he 
was  essentially  a  generous,  high-minded  man,  and  bore 
with  Roman  fortitude  the  going  before  him  to  the  grave 
of  child  after  child. 

The  wits  of  the  Regency  were  mostly  men  of  letters  or 


AUTHORS  AND  WITS  227 

politicians  in  the  first  place  and  jesters  in  the  second. 
To  Joseph  Jekyll  it  was  reserved  to  hold  his  place  in 
society,  and  that  in  the  highest  flight,  almost  entirely  as  a 
professional  maker  and  utterer  of  jokes.  As  a  rule  they 
assumed  the  form  of  puns,  and  those  of  a  crack-jaw 
kind.  That  form  of  humour  has  come  to  be  regarded 
as  positively  criminal,  but  if  Jekyll  sinned,  he  sinned 
bravely.  His  most  shameless  pun  is  given  in  many 
versions.  The  best  of  them  sets  forth  that  his  sister-in- 
law,  Lady  Gertrude  Sloane  Stanley,  was  deploring  the 
fact  that  Sir  Hans  Sloane's  house  had  passed  into  the 
hands  of  a  tailor  ;  she  could  not  sleep  for  thinking  of  it. 
"  Ah,"  said  Jekyll,  "  I  see  what  it  is :  Snip  has  snapped 
your  snorum  " — the  allusion  being,  of  course,  to  "  snip, 
snap,  snorum,"  the  cry  at  the  game  of  forfeits.  Moore  has 
preserved  his  pun  when  he  escaped  dining  at  Lansdowne 
House,  on  a  night  when  the  ceiling  fell  down,  by  an 
engagement  to  meet  the  judges :  "  I  had  been  asked  to 
Ruat  Ccelum,  but  dined  instead  with  Fiat  Justitia." 
When  Scarlett  became  Lord  Abinger,  Jekyll  saluted  him 
with  "  I  say,  Scarlett,  how  came  you  to  get  hold  of  your 
new  name  ?  I  have  heard  of  Porringer  before  and 
Scavenger,  but  never  of  Abinger."  To  those  in  very 
robust  health  Jekyll  may  have  been  tolerable  enough, 
but  Sir  Walter  Scott  complained  that  his  jokes  were 
"  fired  like  minute  guns,  and  with  an  effect  not  much 
less  melancholy."  Still,  every  diarist  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  harvest  a  large  crop  of  them,  such  as  his 
description  of  the  supposed  Russian  habit  of  eating 
tallow  candles — "bad  for  the  liver  and  good  for  the 
lights." 

Jekyll  talked  himself  into  popularity  and  position  at 
the  Bar,  where  his  jokes  must  have  been  to  the  taste  of 


228  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  junior   members.     When   an  old  lady  was  brought 
forward  as  a  witness  on  a  tender  made,  he  scribbled  : 

"  Garrow,  forbear  !  that  tough  old  jade 
Will  never  prove  a  tender  maid." 

His  jokes,  besides  earning  welcome  guineas  for  him  in 
the  Morning  Chronicle,  when  he  was  a  rising  barrister, 
induced  Lord  Shelburne  to  nominate  him  M.P.  for 
Calne,  to  the  exclusion  and  fury  of  Jeremy  Bentham  ;  but 
he  failed  dismally  and  frequently  in  the  House.  They 
gained  him  the  appreciation  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who 
made  Jekyll  his  Solicitor-General,  and  in  1815  forced 
Lord  Eldon  to  appoint  him  to  a  mastership  in  Chancery, 
by  closeting  himself,  so  the  story  goes,  with  the 
Chancellor  in  Bedford  Square  and  declining  to  go  until 
the  deed  was  done.  The  business  was  undoubtedly  a 
job,  but  Jekyll  always  remained  grateful  to  his  Royal 
patron.  In  the  last  year  of  the  life  of  George  IV.  he 
visited  him  at  Virginia  Water,  and  brought  back  strange 
stories  about  afternoon  meals  of  tea  and  broiled  bones, 
and  lacing  postponed  to  a  late  hour  to  avoid  the  pain. 
He  was  one  of  the  very  few  who  regretted  that  selfish  King. 

His  letters  to  his  sister-in-law  represent  Jekyll  at  sixty 
as  a  happy,  good-natured  man,  who  resolutely  declined 
to  grow  old  and  scoffed  at  his  valetudinarian  contem- 
poraries as  Methusalems.  When  he  was  eighty-two  or 
three,  Denman  called  on  him  and  found  him  extremely 
deaf  and  entirely  helpless,  but  as  lively  as  ever.  He 
termed  the  Attorney-General's  reconciliation  with  the 
Government  the  camel  (Campbell)  going  through  the 
eye  of  the  needle.  An  insatiable,  but  not  a  malignant 
gossip,  he  placed  Holland  House  under  persistent  obser- 


JOSEPH  JKKVLL 

FROM    THE   DRAWING    BY   GEORGE   DANCE,  R.A.,  IN   THE   NATIONAL    PORTRAIT   GAL1.ERV 


AUTHORS  AND  WITS  229 

vation.  "  The  fricandeaux  tell,"  was  a  concise  comment 
on  Miladi's  state  of  health.  Mackintosh,  writing  in  the 
Foreign  Quarterly  Review,  declared  of  Holland  House 
that  "  No  such  assemblage  can  ever  again  be  found  until 
another  house  can  find  such  a  master."  Jekyll  gleefully 
queried,  "  Will  Miladi  be  pleased  to  hear  that  Holland 
is  master  there  ?  "  It  is  a  pity  that  more  of  his  corre- 
spondence has  not  been  preserved,  since  he  was  an 
intimate  friend  of  Erskine  during  his  early  struggles, 
and  was  the  accepted  guest  of  the  great  and  the  talented 
for  over  forty  years. 

Jekyll  seems  to  have  been  rather  jealous  of  a  brother- 
wit,  Lord  Alvanley.  The  epilogue  to  Lord  Glengal's 
comedy,  "  The  Irish  Tutor,"  was  written  "  to  manifest 
that  the  best  joker  of  White's  bow  window  could  not 
string  two  lines  together."  But  Lord  Alvanley  could 
afford  to  miss  the  mark  occasionally,  since  his  fame  as  a 
sayer  of  good  things  was  European.  He  stayed  fre- 
quently with  Talleyrand  both  in  Paris  and  at  Valengay, 
and  was  allowed  to  see  those  memoirs  from  which  the 
world  expected  so  much  and  gained  so  little  by  way  of 
revelation.  From  one  visit  he  brought  back  the  Prince's 
definition  of  the  doctrine  of  non-intervention  :  "C'est  un 
mot  metaphysique  et  politique,  qui  signifie  a  peu  pres  la 
meme  chose  qu'intervention."  On  two  occasions  Alvan- 
ley saw  Talleyrand  in  tears,  the  first  after  the  death  of  his 
friend  the  Princess  de  Vaudemont,  the  second  after  the 
Duke  of  Wellington's  chivalrous  defence  of  the  Prince 
when  he  was  attacked  in  debate  by  Lord  Londonderry. 
His  social  gifts  took  Alvanley  as  far  as  the  Crimea,  where 
he  used  to  spend  the  winter  with  Count  Woronzoff,  the 
Governor  of  Odessa. 

Lord  Alvanley,  after  a  short  career  in  the  army,  became 


230  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

a  prominent  member  of  the  dandy  set  led  by  BrummelJ 
until,  in  1816,  his  debts  and  princely  displeasure  drove  the 
beau  abroad,  and  consisting  of  Lord  Sidney  Osborne, 
Lord  Allen,  commonly  known  as  "  King  "  Allen,  Lord 
Foley,  Sir  Henry  Mildmay,  Byron's  friend  Scrope  Davies, 
and  many  more.  When  Brummell  went  into  exile, 
Alvanley  took  his  place  as  chief  of  the  ton  and  reputed 
author  of  its  happiest  sayings.  Most  of  his  friends  went 
to  ruin,  but  he  kept  above  water,  thanks  to  his  exemption 
from  arrest  as  a  peer,  and  the  forethought  of  an  uncle 
who  had  carefully  tied  up  his  property.  Alvanley  was  a 
thriftless  soul,  and  Greville  accuses  him  of  having  left  in 
the  lurch  without  remorse  the  friends  who  assisted  him. 
Animus  probably  lurks  in  the  charge,  since  Gronow 
relates  that  the  "  Cruncher "  once  took  upon  himself  to 
set  Alvanley's  affairs  in  order  and,  having  gone  through 
them  with  more  cheerful  results  than  had  been  expected, 
was  much  disconcerted  to  receive  a  note  from  that 
reprobate  next  morning  to  say  that  he  had  quite  for- 
gotten a  debt  of  fifty-five  thousand  pounds.  Tradesmen 
fared  ill  with  the  mercurial  peer.  "  I  have  no  credit  with 
either  butcher  or  poulterer,  but  if  you  can  put  up  with 
turtle  and  turbot  I  shall  be  happy  to  see  you,"  was  his 
invitation  to  a  friend.  His  dinners  in  Park  Street,  St. 
James's,  and  at  Melton  were  excellent,  and  he  insisted 
on  having  an  apricot  tart  on  the  sideboard  the  whole 
year  round.  If  Gronow  is  correct  in  estimating  Alvan- 
ley's income  at  no  more  than  .£8,000  a  year,  he  must 
have  met  very  few  of  his  obligations,  since  in  addition 
to  being  a  great  traveller  he  was  a  hard  rider  to  hounds. 
"  Ice  him,  Gunter,  ice  him,"  was  his  consoling  advice 
when  that  pastrycook  complained  that  he  could  not  hold 
in  a  hard-mouthed  horse, 


AUTHORS  AND  WITS  231 

Pointed  but  good-natured  "chaff"  seems  to  have  been 
Alvanley's  chief  stock-in-trade  as  a  humourist.  He  often 
met  his  match — sometimes  it  was  Lord  Yarmouth,  at 
others  Lord  Deerhurst — but  take  him  day  by  day,  he 
had  no  equal,  while  a  slight  lisp  only  heightened  his 
drollery.  Lord  Alvanley  was  a  great  favourite  at  Oat- 
lands,  the  happy-go-lucky  establishment  of  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  York,  where  "  week-ends  "  were  instituted  a 
century  ago,  but  he  made  himself  at  home  everywhere. 
His  request  for  "  more  carving  and  less  gilding,"  when  he 
was  given  a  poor  dinner  among  gorgeous  surroundings, 
has  been  localised  in  the  house  of  aparvenu  named  Nield. 
At  the  same  time,  his  habit  of  putting  out  his  bedroom 
candle  by  throwing  it  on  the  floor  and  taking  a  shot  at  it 
with  a  bolster,  or  thrusting  it,  while  still  alight,  under  his 
pillow,  must  have  been  disconcerting  to  most  hostesses. 
His  appearance,  says  Gronow,  resembled  that  of  a  jolly 
Italian  friar,  and,  after  deep  potations,  his  copious  pinches 
of  snuff  had  some  difficulty  in  finding  their  way  to  an 
unusually  small  nose.  Yet,  after  the  Dandies  had  per- 
suaded Madame  de  Stae'l  that  Alvanley  had  ^100,000  a 
year,  she  found  it  in  her  to  praise  his  beauty  to  his 
face. 

The  Reform  Bill  aroused  such  political  convictions 
as  Lord  Alvanley  possessed,  and  it  was  during  the 
existence  of  the  Grey  Ministry  that  he  frequented 
Holland  House.  His  challenge  to  O'Connell  for  call- 
ing him  a  "  bloated  buffoon "  and  his  duel  with  the 
Liberator's  son,  Morgan,  are  matters  that  have  grown 
stale  by  repetition,  as  also  have  the  jokes  with  which 
he  decorated  the  occasion.  But  it  is  less  well  known 
that  Lord  Alvanley  continued  to  regard  politics  with  a 
serious  eye,  and  after  1841  took  upon  himself  to  instruct 


232  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Peel  in  statesmanship. 
He  gravely  reported  his  colloquies  to  Tom  Raikes,  who 
while  his  money  lasted  was  one  of  the  Dandies,  and 
Tom  committed  them  with  equal  gravity  to  his  journal. 
Alvanley's  recipe  for  the  governance  of  the  Empire 
appears  to  have  been  the  "squaring"  of  the  Irish 
priesthood,  an  idea  which  has  possessed  politicians  of 
more  substantial  pretensions  than  his,  but  which  none, 
somehow,  has  been  able  to  realise. 


CHAPTER    XVII 
AMATEURS,  ARTISTS,  AND  ACTORS 

Lord  Egremont — Life  at  Petworth — Payne  Knight — The  Elgin 
marbles — Lawrence  and  Lord  Holland — Leslie  and  Holland  House 
— Hoppner — "Bilious  from  hard  work" — Wilkie's  preciseness — At 
Holland  House — Wilkie's  friends — Some  sculptors  and  Canova — 
Kean — Jack  Bannister — John  Kemble — The  Kemble  banquet. 

AMONG  the  patrons  of  art  who  visited  Holland 
House  the  third  and  last  Earl  of  Egremont  was 
perhaps  the  most  discerning.  If  he  had  so  chosen, 
he  would  have  made  a  considerable  figure  in  politics, 
since  his  rare  speeches  in  the  House  of  Lords  were 
effective,  and  he  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  moves  of 
the  game.  But  his  unconventional  habits  would  have 
unfitted  him  for  office  ;  besides,  as  the  years  went  on, 
his  zeal  for  Whig  principles  abated,  and  he  revolted 
altogether  from  the  Catholic  Emancipation  movement. 
Lord  Egremont  is  best  remembered  as  a  singularly 
successful  owner  of  race-horses,  a  promoter  of 
agricultural  experiments,  and  above  all,  as  an  amateur 
of  art  who  enriched  the  collection  at  Petworth,  be- 
queathed to  him  by  his  father,  with  carefully  selected 
specimens  of  Renaissance  and  contemporary  painting. 
He  early  discerned  the  genius  of  Turner,  who  had  a 


234  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

studio  at  the  house ;  he  helped  Benjamin  Robert  Haydon 
in  his  necessities ;  he  employed  Flaxman  in  preference 
to  the  more  fashionable  Chantrey,  and  the  results  were 
the  "  Michael  and  Satan "  and  "  Pastoral  Apollo,"  ex- 
hibited at  the  Royal  Academy  in  1824. 

Having  passed  under  the  sway  of  a  great  lady, 
Egremont  remained  a  bachelor  all  his  life,  and  was  the 
father  of  numerous  illegitimate  children,  acknowledged 
and  unacknowledged.  In  the  autobiographies  of  Haydon 
and  Leslie,  his  yearly  guest,  and  in  the  Greville 
"  Memoirs,"  his  dislike  of  ceremony,  eccentric  habits,  and 
unconventional  manners  are  entertainingly  described. 
Petworth,  where  the  Allied  Sovereigns  were  entertained 
in  1814,  was  like  a  great  inn,  entered  and  left  by  all 
as  they  pleased  without  any  formal  leave-taking.  Those, 
however,  who  abused  its  hospitality  were,  in  more  than 
one  instance,  ordered  to  make  themselves  scarce.  The 
host  himself  was  perpetually  on  the  move,  shy  in  his 
address,  and  after  conferring  a  favour  he  had  left  the 
room  before  there  was  time  to  thank  him.  A  lady's- 
maid  was  known  to  mistake  him  for  one  of  his  own 
servants,  whereupon  he  politely  escorted  her  to  the 
servants'  hall.  About  the  year  1825  he  abandoned 
London  society,  and  living  entirely  at  Petworth,  set 
himself  to  use  his  great  wealth  for  the  benefit  of  the 
people  about  him.  Greville  describes  an  open-air  fete 
given  by  him  in  1834  to  the  poor  of  the  neighbourhood, 
some  six  thousand  in  number,  which  he  declared  was 
one  of  the  gayest  and  most  beautiful  spectacles  he  had 
ever  seen.  When  Lord  Egremont  died,  three  years 
later,  the  diarist  said  that  the  whole  county  of  Sussex 
would  feel  the  event  more  keenly  than  the  loss  of  an 
individual  had  ever  been  felt  before. 


AMATEURS,  ARTISTS,  AND  ACTORS         235 

Unlike  Lord  Egremont,  Payne  Knight,  a  rival 
virtuoso,  particularly  in  bronzes,  was  a  selfish  epicurean. 
Shropshire  ironworks  gave  him  the  wealth  he  spent 
partly  in  building  Dounton  Castle  in  Herefordshire — 
a  gimcrack  castle  and  bad  house,  Greville  calls  it — only 
to  go  and  live  in  a  cottage  in  the  park,  partly  on  the 
museum  in  his  house  in  Soho  Square.  He  lived  royally, 
and  always  had  a  dish  of  lampreys  on  his  table.  As  a 
collector  Payne  Knight  had  many  merits  ;  he  appreciated 
the  beauty  of  Greek  coinage,  and  had  a  fairly  sound 
judgment  in  gems.  Besides,  he  had  the  good  sense  to 
leave  his  treasures  to  the  British  Museum.  "The 
collection,"  writes  Mr.  Warwick  Wroth,  "  was  valued 
at  the  time  at  sums  varying  from  ^30,000  to  .£60,000. 
The  acquisition  of  the  coins  and  bronzes  immensely 
strengthened  the  national  collection,"  and  the  bequest 
included  as  well  273  works  by  Claude.  But  as  an 
author  he  acquired  a  reputation  among  his  contempo- 
raries, of  whom  Dr.  Parr  allowed  him  to  be  a  scholar 
and  Byron  wrote  of  him  with  reverence,  which  cannot 
be  said  to  have  endured.  His  dully  didactic  poem 
"  The  Progress  of  Civil  Society "  is  now  remembered 
solely  through  the  admirable  banter  in  the  Anti- 
Jacobin  : 

"The  same  of  Plants — Potatoes  'Tatoes  breed, 
Uncostly  Cabbage  springs  from  Cabbage  seed ; 
Lettuce  to  Lettuce,  Leeks  to  Leeks  succeed ; 
Nor  e'er  did  cooling  Cucumbers  presume 
To  flow'r  like  Myrtle,  or  like  Violets  bloom. 
Man  only — rash,  refin'd,  presumptuous  Man, 
Starts  from  his  rank,  and  mars  Creation's  plan." 

Payne  Knight's  "  Analytical  Inquiry  into  the  Principles 


236  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

of  Taste"  is  completely  forgotten,  and  even  in  its  day 
it  was  severely  trounced  by  the  Edinburgh  Review. 
Though  a  man  of  some  learning,  and  undeniable  taste, 
he  is  destined  to  go  down  the  ages  chiefly  through 
his  egregious  blunder  over  the  Elgin  marbles.  "  You 
have  lost  your  labour,  my  Lord  Elgin.  Your  marbles 
are  overrated ;  they  are  not  Greek,  they  are  Roman  of 
the  time  of  Hadrian."  B.  R.  Haydon  tells  the  story, 
and  as  he  hated  Knight  and  worshipped  the  sculptures, 
we  may  be  sure  that  he  has  recorded  all  there  was  to 
record,  and  perhaps  a  little  more.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
the  evidence  of  the  "  eminent  scholar  whose  ipse  dixit 
no  one  dared  dispute  "  before  the  Select  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Commons  was  against  the  acquisition  of 
the  marbles  by  the  nation,  nor  did  he  mend  matters  by 
a  quibbling  "  Explanation "  put  forth  in  reply  to  a 
searching  onslaught  by  the  Quarterly.  He  saw,  declared 
that  genial  periodical,  "that  they  would  eclipse  his 
collection  of  small  bronzes  and  shake  the  supremacy 
with  which  he  reigned  over  drawing-room  literature 
and  saloon  taste."  Payne  Knight  seems  to  have 
carried  his  autocracy  into  private  life,  and  to  have 
preferred  his  own  to  others'  conversation.  When,  in 
1822,  he  had  grown  very  deaf,  Rogers's  comment  was, 
"'Tis  from  want  of  practice." 

C.  R.  Leslie,  Hoppner,  and  Wilkie  appear  to  have 
been  the  artists  in  most  general  request  at  Holland 
House.  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence,  the  handsome  and 
sentimental,  does  not  figure  as  one  of  its  frequenters ; 
he  was,  for  one  thing,  an  almost  insatiable  worker,  and 
in  his  rare  moments  of  leisure  he  preferred,  no  doubt, 
the  tender  adoration  of  Mrs.  Wolff.  Leslie  records, 
however,  a  conversation  between  him  and  Lord  Holland, 


AMATEURS,  ARTISTS,  AND  ACTORS          237 

in  which  the  latter  had  the  advantage.  When  Stuart 
the  American  painter  died,  Lawrence  asserted  that  he 
had  returned  to  the  United  States — not,  as  some  said, 
out  of  admiration  for  their  institutions,  but  because  he 
had  become  tired  of  the  insides  of  various  British 
prisons  to  which  his  debts  had  consigned  him.  "  Well, 
then,"  said  Lord  Holland,  "after  all  it  was  his  love  of 
liberty  that  took  him  to  America." 

Leslie  himself,  that  amiable  executant  of  the  literary 
anecdote,  was  introduced  to  Lord  Holland  in  1825, 
apparently  by  Lord  Egremont.  He  painted  the  portraits 
of  Lady  Affleck,  Lady  Holland's  mother,  of  Lord 
Holland  and  his  daughter  Mary,  afterwards  Lady 
Lilford,  and  the  group,  familiar  through  engravings,  of 
Lord  and  Lady  Holland,  Allen  and  the  page-librarian. 
Though  his  price  was  only  thirty  guineas  for  each 
painting,  his  host  sent  a  cheque  for  a  hundred  guineas 
for  the  pictures  of  himself  and  his  girl,  explaining  that 
the  price  "even  in  its  amended  shape,  bears  no  pro- 
portion to  the  value  I  annex  to  the  works ;  but  it 
unfortunately  does  bear  a  more  correct  one  to  the 
sum  I  can  with  any  prudence  devote  to  such  objects." 
Later  on  Lady  Holland  managed  that  the  artist  should 
be  presented  to  Queen  Victoria,  and  his  paintings 
"The  Queen  receiving  the  Sacrament  at  her  Corona- 
tion" and  "The  Christening  of  the  Princess  Royal" 
were  the  result.  Leslie's  "Autobiographical  Recollec- 
tions" contain  several  characteristic  stories  about  her. 
When  she  heard  of  a  gentleman  and  his  wife  being 
murdered  in  their  bed  by  a  servant,  who  entered  the 
room  through  a  back  window,  she  had  the  window 
communicating  with  her  own  bedroom  covered  with  an 
iron  grating.  Sydney  Smith  gave  another  account  of 


238  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  precaution.  "Allen,"  he  said,  "keeps  a  clergyman 
in  confinement  there,  upon  bread  and  water." 

Lawrence  failed  with  his  portrait  of  Fox ;  Lord 
Holland  reckoned  it  an  unprecedented  instance  of  a 
distinguished  painter  falling  short  of  his  distinguished 
subject.  The  commissions  of  Holland  House  went, 
therefore,  by  preference  to  Hoppner,  who  painted  several 
of  the  circle,  including  Bobus  Smith.  He  has  been 
called  "  the  most  daring  plagiarist  of  Reynolds,  and  the 
boldest  rival  of  Lawrence."  Hoppner  lacked  the  grand 
manner  of  the  other  two,  but  he  was  a  good  straight- 
forward painter  of  nearly  the  first  class,  free  from 
Lawrence's  effeminacy  and  affectations.  To  him  are 
due,  after  all,  the  best  likenesses  extant  of  Nelson  and 
Pitt.  "  Ah,"  said  Hoppner's  patron,  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
who  employed  him  rather  than  his  father's  favourite, 
the  deplorable  West,  "  there  Pitt  is  with  his  damned 
obstinate  face ! " 

Naturally,  the  artist  was  a  man  of  fine  mind  ;  but 
said  Haydon,  and  Lawrence  agreed  with  him,  he  became 
"  bilious  from  hard  work  at  portraits  and  the  harass  of 
high  life."  He  hated  Northcote,  and  Northcote  returned 
the  compliment  to  the  "  poor  man-milliner  of  a  painter  " 
with  interest ;  he  was  also  unworthily  jealous  of 
Lawrence.  Rogers  used  to  assert  that  Hoppner  had 
an  awful  temper,  and  was  the  most  spiteful  person  he 
ever  knew.  "  Is  not  a  man  to  be  pitied,"  Hoppner 
would  say,  "  with  such  a  wife  as  mine  and  such  a 
friend  ? " — the  friend  being  Gifford,  the  editor  of  the 
Quarterly,  whom  Mrs.  Hoppner  tried  to  dissuade  from 
attacking  Keats.  Yet  his  bitter  tongue  was  compatible 
with  much  genuine  consideration  for  his  family.  As  the 
son  of  one  of  the  German  attendants  at  Windsor,  he 


AMATEURS,  ARTISTS,  AND  ACTORS          239 

was  allowed  the  run  of  the  Royal  kitchen.  That  favour 
was  withdrawn,  soon  after  his  marriage,  as  Hoppner 
suspected  through  the  machinations  of  West.  Where- 
upon he  would  sometimes  put  a  roll  in  his  pocket  and  go 
out  for  the  day,  pretending  on  his  return  that  he  had 
dined  at  the  Palace. 

The  manners  of  Wilkie,  humble  to  the  edge  of 
obsequiousness,  differed  toto  cash  from  the  bluntness 
of  Hoppner.  That  precise  Scot  is  represented  by  Leslie 
as  laboriously  learning  the  figures  of  the  quadrille,  and 
then  executing  them  with  minute  formality,  never 
omitting  a  bow  at  the  prescribed  moment.  Wilkie 
could  not  quite  forget  that  he  was  the  son  of  the 
minister  of  Cults  and  that  his  mother  came  of  a 
farming  stock.  Even  the  tutelage  of  the  boisterous  and 
thriftless  Haydon  failed  to  convert  him  from  the  habit 
of  making  his  own  bargains  with  print-sellers  and 
exacting  the  uttermost  farthing  of  his  change  in  Paris 
restaurants.  Lord  Mulgrave,  Sir  George  Beaumont,  and 
Whitbread  were  among  his  earliest  patrons,  and  by  1800, 
two  years  after  "The  Village  Politicians"  had  made 
his  reputation,  he  had  entered  Lansdowne  House.  But 
"The  Blind  Fiddler,"  "The  Village  Festival,"  and  "The 
Rent  Day "  had  all  been  exhibited  and  he  had  become 
a  full  Academician,  before  Alan  Cunningham's  minute 
biography  records  any  visit  to  Lord  and  Lady  Holland. 

It  was  in  1815  that  Holland  House  witnessed  Wilkie's 
introduction  to  Canova,  as  commemorated  by  Macaulay, 
but  the  artist's  disappointing  letter  to  his  friend,  John 
Anderson,  conveys  little  more  than  the  characteristic 
reflection  that  the  acquaintance  might  be  of  importance 
at  a  future  time.  Wilkie  was  now  established  in 
Phillimore  Place,  Kensington,  and  was  therefore  a 


24o  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

neighbour.  He  had  painted  "The  Waterloo  Gazette" 
and  passed  into  his  Spanish  style  when,  in  1835,  he  is 
found  meeting  King  William,  the  ex-Premier  Earl  Grey, 
and  many  of  the  Cabinet  at  an  evening  reception.  "  I 
felt  myself,"  he  wrote  to  his  sister,  "a  very  inconsiderable 
person.  Her  ladyship  contrived,  however,  in  the  kindest 
manner  to  get  me  spoken  to  by  the  great  star  ;  and  the 
others,  who  were  scarcely  less  than  Ministers  of  State, 
were  very  obliging  and  civil."  Lord  Holland  was,  of 
course,  introduced  into  Wilkie's  well-known  picture  of 
Queen  Victoria's  first  Council,  and  the  artist  saw  him 
just  before  starting  on  the  journey  to  the  East  whence  he 
was  never  to  return.  The  news  of  Lord  Holland's  death 
reached  Wilkie  at  Constantinople,  and  he  wrote  to  his 
brother,  "  I  lose  in  him  a  most  kind,  steady,  and  powerful 
friend."  To  Rogers  he  sent  a  more  extended  tribute, 
dwelling  on — 

"the  interruption  of  an  acquaintance,  since  I  was  first 
introduced  to  his  lordship  and  his  esteemed  and  noble  lady, 
of  twenty-five  years.  The  last  time  I  saw  his  lordship  I  was 
proud  to  be  at  the  same  table  with  those  he  most  loved  : 
you  were  present  with  Mr.  Moore  ;  never  was  he  in  better 
spirits,  nor  his  conversation  (always  most  delightful  and 
instructive)  more  brilliant." 

The  effusiveness  of  this  reminiscence  was  natural  to 
Wilkie.  Though  an  eloquent  speaker  in  public,  he  was 
slow  of  words  in  society,  and  never  conveyed  the  appear- 
ance of  ease,  though  he  laboured  to  be  like  other  people. 
"  I  am  glad  I  went  to  Windsor  to-day,  for  it  will  inure 
me  to  the  King  "  was  his  confidence  to  Chantrey,  after 
the  pair  had  had  an  interview  with  George  IV.  lasting  for 


SIR    DAVID   WILKIK,    R.A. 

FROM    THE   l»AINTlN(i    BY    HIMSELK    IN    THE    NATIONAL    PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


AMATEURS,  ARTISTS,  AND  ACTORS          241 

several  hours.  There  was,  on  the  other  hand,  no  guile 
in  the  painter  of  "The  Waterloo  Gazette."  The  true 
Wilkie  was  revealed  at  Lawrence's  funeral,  when,  walking 
next  Constable,  he  caught  sight  of  the  City  Marshal's 
headgear.  Looking  down  with  every  semblance  of 
woe,  he  whispered,  "Just  look  at  that  cocked  hat.  It's 
grand  1"  In  an  age  when  artistic  cabals  raged  with  a  fury 
unknown  to  the  larger  times  of  Reynolds  and  Gains- 
borough, Wilkie's  goodness  of  heart  kept  him  on  friendly 
terms  with  the  touchy  Hoppner  and  the  sensitive 
Lawrence.  He  had,  it  is  true,  a  quarrel  with  Haydon, 
but  backing  a  bond  was  the  cause,  and  there  the  national 
prudence  told.  Otherwise  his  affectionate  relations  with 
that  unhappy  man  were  unbroken,  though  Collins,  in 
Wilkie's  later  years,  was  a  closer  associate. 

Nollekens,  puny  of  body  and  large  of  head,  who 
encouraged  young  Wilkie  by  the  prophecy  that  he  would 
soon  be  a  member  of  the  Academy  "  among  the  best  on 
'em  "  j  Chantrey,  the  hospitable  and  piscatorial ;  and  the 
uninspired  Westmacott,  whose  replica  of  the  statue  of 
Fox  in  Bloomsbury  Square,  stands  in  the  grounds,  were 
among  the  sculptors  who  are  represented  at  Holland 
House.  They  all  paled  their  ineffectual  fires  before 
Canova,  when  he  arrived  in  London,  shortly  after 
Waterloo  had  been  fought  and  won,  partly  to  pronounce 
judgment  on  the  Elgin  marbles,  partly  to  inform  the 
Pope  on  the  state  of  the  fine  arts  in  England.  Enter- 
tained at  a  banquet  given  by  the  Royal  Academy  and 
organised  by  Flaxman,  he  was  received  everywhere  as 
the  personage  that  he  undoubtedly  was.  His  verdicts 
were  eagerly  circulated,  such  as  his  admiration  for 
Rennie's  work,  Waterloo  Bridge,  and  his  failure  to 
appreciate  Westminster  Abbey,  though  he  allowed  that 


242  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

bits  of  it  were  fine.  Haydon  felt  about  Canova  as  if  he 
were  a  descendant  of  the  great.  But  then  the  sculptor 
was  diplomatist  enough  to  pass  a  compliment  on  the 
painter's  "  Jairus's  Daughter,"  while  his  taste  led  him  to 
pronounce  aright  on  the  Elgin  marbles.  "  La  verit6  est 
telle,  les  accidents  de  la  chair  et  les  formes  sont  si  vraies 
et  si  belles,  que  ces  statues  produiront  un  grand  charge- 
ment  dans  les  arts  " — notably  in  that  of  Canova  himself. 
Canova  also  placed  Sir  Benjamin  West,  P.R.A.,  in  his 
proper  place ;  he  did  not  compose,  he  grouped  models 
together. 

Sir  Martin  Archer  Shee,  who  was  preferred  to  Wilkie 
as  President  of  the  Royal  Academy,  an  uninspired 
portrait  painter,  but  a  dignified  head  of  a  society  of 
painters,  was  met  by  John  Cam  Hobhouse  at  Holland 
House,  apparently  in  the  year  1815.  Fluent  talker 
though  Shee  was,  Edmund  Kean,  who  made  that  night 
one  of  his  rare  and  unwilling  appearances  in  society, 
outshone  him  after  they  had  joined  the  ladies.  Hob- 
house  gives  us  the  portrait  of  "a  very  handsome  little 
man,  with  a  mild  but  marked  countenance,  and  eyes  as 
brilliant  as  on  the  stage.  He  knitted  his  brows,  I 
observed,  when  he  could  not  exactly  make  out  what  was 
said.  Kean  ate  most  pertinaciously  with  his  knife,  and 
was  a  little  too  frequent  with  ladyships  and  lordships,  as 
was  natural  to  him."  Under  the  examination  of  Lady 
Holland,  he  disavowed  the  pronunciation  of  "  they  "  as 
"  the " — one  of  the  mannerisms  probably  with  which 
Kemble  had  infected  the  stage — and  denied  that  he  could 
play  comedy,  except  when  it  touched  farce,  as  the 
character  of  Tyke  in  the  "School  of  Reform."  The 
great  tragic  actor  was  then  at  the  height  of  his  renown. 
In  the  previous  year  his  Shylock,  though  first  performed 


AMATEURS,  ARTISTS,  AND  ACTORS          243 

at  Drury  Lane  with  a  poor  company  to  a  house  more 
than  half  empty,  had  conquered  the  town ;  Whitbread 
was  heaping  salary  on  him,  and  all  seemed  well. 
'  Fashionable  company,  which  Kean,  after  a  brief  trial, 
avoided  altogether,  was  a  congenial  element  to  handsome 
Jack  Bannister,  the  finest  comedian  of  the  day,  and, 
probably,  as  acceptable  a  Bob  Acres  and  Dr.  Pangloss  in 
"  The  Heir  at  Law "  as  have  ever  occupied  the  boards. 
To  his  friendship  with  the  painters  of  the  time  was  due 
•his  suggestion  of  "Reading  the  Will"  as  a  subject  to 
Wilkie.  From  his  generosity  as  a  man  came  his  reply 
to  the  depredator  who  sneered  at  Kean  as  an  admirable 
harlequin,  "  That  I  am  certain  of,  for  he  has  jumped  over 
all  our  heads." 

Princess  Liechtenstein,  who  passes  over  Kean,  men- 
tions Bannister  and  John  Kemble  as  two  actors  who 
visited  Holland  House.  Our  English  Roscius  we  should 
expect  to  find  there,  because  he  filled  the  place  in  his 
profession  occupied  before  him  by  Garrick,  and  after 
him  by  Macready  and  Sir  Henry  Irving.  Though 
mummer-worship  had  not  then  become  the  craze,  an 
accomplished  actor  of  good  sense  and  gentlemanlike 
feeling,  such  as  we  know  Kemble  to  have  been,  on 
Sir  Walter  Scott's  evidence,  had  the  entry  of  London 
drawing-rooms ;  nor  was  his  habit  of  swallowing  wine 
"by  pailfuls,"  to  which  Scott  also  bears  witness,  taken 
amiss  in  London  dining-rooms. 


"  The  great "  (exclaims  his  mellifluous  biographer,  Boaden) 
"  who  sought  the  society  of  Mr.  Kemble,  sought  it  on  the 
only  terms  that  could  be  honourable  to  themselves  or  him. 
So  it  was  at  Wroxton  Abbey  that  he  was  welcomed  by  Lord 
Guildford — thus  it  was  that,  in  the  lifetime  of  the  late  Marquis 


244  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

of  Abercorn,  he  was  the  happy  and  honoured  guest  at  the 
Priory.  It  was  thus  that  Lord  Holland  knew  and  loved  Mr. 
Kemble  ;  thus  that  the  accomplished  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  Lord 
Egremont,  Lord  Blessington,  and  a  long  list  of  his  noble 
admirers  bestowed  a  lasting  and  a  most  cordial  friendship 
with  their  notice." 

Kemble  played  at  Covent  Garden  from  September, 
1803,  to  June,  1817,  a  period  which  witnessed  the  burn- 
ing of  the  theatre  and  consequent  migration  to  the  Hay- 
market,  the  O.P.,  or  old  prices,  riots  on  its  re-opening, 
much  interpretation  of  Shakespeare  in  the  grand, 
sonorous  manner,  but  the  discovery  of  no  new  dramatist. 
When  the  curtain  had  fallen  for  the  last  time  on  his 
Coriolanus,  Lord  Holland  took  the  chair  at  a  dinner 
given  in  his  honour  at  the  Freemasons'  Tavern.  The 
ceremony  was  as  tremendous  as  the  guest  of  the  evening. 
The  dinner  lasted  from  seven  to  midnight ;  the  band 
played  selections  from  Handel,  "  and,  on  the  removal  of 
the  cloth,  the  matchless  Non  nobis  was  rendered  in  all  its 
thrilling  awe,"  by  the  best  singers  of  it  that  Boaden  had 
ever  heard.  Young,  the  actor,  recited  an  ode  by  Camp- 
bell. Talma,  Kemble's  most  illustrious  contemporary, 
acknowledged  with  emotion  the  toast  of  his  health,  in 
excellent  English,  but,  adds  a  conscientious  reporter, 
with  an  occasional  mixture  of  the  French  accent.  A 
piece  of  plate  was  to  have  been  presented  to  Kemble,  but 
it  was  not  ready,  and  so  the  cast  and  drawing  had  to 
serve  instead.  The  inscription  duly  eulogised  Kemble's 
"  labours  and  perseverance  in  the  advancement  of  the 
legitimate  Drama,  and  more  particularly  of  Shakespeare, 
whose  Muse  his  performances  had  aided  and  embellished." 
The  chairman's  speech  touched  a  similar  note,  and  Lord 
Holland  further  remarked  with  much  force  that  Kemble 


AMATEURS,  ARTISTS,  AND  ACTORS         245 

united  in  himself  the  claims  of  the  actor,  the  scholar,  and 
the  critic.  Did  not  Lamb  write  that  no  man  could 
deliver  brilliant  dialogue,  the  dialogue  of  Congreve  or  of 
Wycherley,  because  none  understood  it,  half  so  well  as 
John  Kemble  ?  The  actor  departed  from  what  Boaden 
calls  a  scene  of  perfectly  rational  and  ennobling 
hospitality  to  end  his  days  at  Lausanne,  jealous,  said 
Rogers,  of  the  homage  paid  to  Mont  Blanc. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
MEN    OF    SCIENCE 

Count  Rumford — "Useful"  and  "practical" — The  arrival  of 
Davy — His  marriage  and  knighthood — Lady  Davy — Sir  Humphry's 
carriage  and  four — Davy  and  Wollaston — "  A  sporting  Archbishop  " 
— Faraday — William  and  Alexander  von  Humboldt — Alexander  in 
society — His  reminiscences  of  England — Charles  Waterton — Sir 
Benjamin  Brodie  at  Holland  House — Sir  Henry  Holland. 

THE  eighteenth  century,  until  it  drew  towards  -its 
close,  had  been  content  with  the  pseudo-science 
of  Lavater  and  the  impostures  of  Cagliostro. 
The  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  witnessed  the  creation 
of  a  genuine  interest  in  the  researches  of  Volta  and  his 
contemporaries.  With  the  hour  came  the  man  in  Ben- 
jamin Thompson,  Count  Rumford,  who,  in  1799,  gave 
Science  a  home  by  founding  the  Royal  Institution  of 
Great  Britain  in  Albemarle  Street.  That  extraordinary 
American  inevitably  calls  up  to  mind  his  greater  com- 
patriot, Benjamin  Franklin.  Born  in  Massachusetts,  he 
developed  Loyalist  sympathies  during  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  smelt  powder  outside  Charleston,  after  an 
unfortunate  experience  in  England  as  Under-Secretary 
for  the  Colonies  to  an  incompetent  chief  in  Lord 
George  Germaine.  Though  he  remained  a  British  sub- 
ject, Thompson  entered  the  service  of  the  Elector  of 

246 


MEN  OF  SCIENCE  247 

Bavaria,  for  whom  he  reformed  the  army,  policed  the 
capital,  and  beautified  it  with  a  public  park.  On  his 
return  to  England  he  took  up  his  abode  at  Kensington 
Gore.  The  man  of  action  was  all  the  while  a  man  of 
scientific  investigation.  Rumford  destroyed  the  material 
theory  of  heat  by  establishing  that  it  was  nothing 
else  than  motion.  He  applied  his  discoveries  to  such 
eminently  practical  objects  as  the  curing  of  smoky 
chimneys  and  the  economy  of  fuel  for  purposes  of 
cooking.  The  liberality  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  was 
applied  by  him  to  presenting  the  Royal  Society  with  the 
gold  and  silver  medals,  and  the  Society  had  no  other 
choice  than  to  make  him  their  first  recipient.  "  Useful  " 
and  "  practical "  were  favourite  words  with  this  precursor 
of  Morse  and  Edison.  To  realise  them,  he  persuaded 
the  world  of  science  to  support  his  Royal  Institution, 
designed  its  lecture-room,  and  obtained  its  charter. 
Being  at  a  loss  for  a  lecturer,  he  entered  into  negotia- 
tions in  1801  with  young  Humphry  Davy,  who  had  made 
a  name  for  himself  as  assistant  to  Dr.  Beddoes  in  the 
Pneumatic  Institute  at  Bristol.  Davy  was  Count  Rum- 
ford's  most  important  and  final  discovery  before  his 
desire  to  improve  yet  another  country  prompted  him, 
in  the  following  year,  to  migrate  to  France,  where  in 
1814  he  ended  his  energetic  days. 

During  the  twelve  years  he  lectured  at  the  Royal 
Institution,  Davy  had  fashionable  London  at  his  feet. 
The  simple  man  from  Penzance,  of  twenty-two,  with 
a  smirk  on  his  face  and  pert  of  manner,  succeeded  in 
packing  the  hall  with  audiences  of  the  first  rank  and 
talent — the  literary  and  the  scientific,  the  practical  and 
the  theoretic,  blue-stockings  and  women  of  fashion, 
the  old  and  the  young.  They  were  charmed  by  the 


248  THE   HOLLAND  HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Corinthian  abundance  of  his  style.  "  I  attend  Davy's 
lectures,"  said  Coleridge,  "to  increase  the  stock  of  my 
metaphors."  They  were  fascinated  by  the  daring  of  his 
experiments,  strongly  contrasted  as  they  were  with  the 
attention  to  microscopic  accuracy  by  which  Wollaston 
attained  his  results.  The  Duchess  of  Gordon  and  other 
leaders  of  fashion  asked  out  to  their  receptions  the  young 
professor  who,  a  few  months  earlier,  had  been  gravelled 
by  his  attempts  to  answer  a  letter  of  invitation.  They 
were  right ;  for  Davy  in  his  laboratory  was  making 
science  before  talking  about  it  in  familiar  terms  to  his 
well-born  audiences.  In  November,  1807,  he  delivered 
the  momentous  Bakerian  Lecture  before  the  Royal 
Society,  summarising  his  discoveries  in  electricity,  which 
carried  his  name  over  the  civilised  world ;  and  Napoleon, 
then  First  Consul,  founded  a  prize  for  experiments  on 
the  galvanic  fluid,  which  in  due  course  was  awarded  to 
him.  The  farming  interest,  much  occupied  in  the  appli- 
cation of  chemicals  to  the  land,  also  made  a  hero  of 
Davy.  He  became  chemical  professor  to  the  Board  of 
Agriculture  ;  he  was  invited  to  the  annual  sheep-shearing 
of  Mr.  Coke,  of  Holkham,  and  a  print  of  the  day  repre- 
sents him  engaged  at  that  solemn  function  in  conversa- 
tion with  his  host,  Sir  John  Sinclair,  Sir  Joseph  Banks, 
and  Arthur  Young. 

According  to  the  generally  accepted  story,  knighthood 
and  matrimony,  two  events  which  befell  him  in  1812, 
turned  Sir  Humphry  Davy's  head.  But  quite  early  in 
his  career  Coleridge  had  noticed  dissipation  and  flattery 
as  "  the  two  serpents  at  the  cradle  of  his  genius."  He 
went  everywhere,  dashing  from  his  laboratory  to  dinner- 
parties and  from  dinner-parties  to  his  laboratory,  econo- 
mising time  by  putting  on  fresh  linen  over  that  which 


MEN  OF  SCIENCE  249 

was  underneath.  His  biographer,  Dr.  Paris,  gravely 
relates  that  he  was  known  to  have  on  as  many  as  five 
shirts  and  as  many  pairs  of  socks  at  the  same  time. 
Davy's  devotion  to  science  had  lost,  therefore,  its  first 
fine  ardour  when  he  led  to  the  altar  Mrs.  Apreece, 
a  West  Indian  heiress,  whose  vivacity  had  won  the 
approval  of  Madame  de  Stae'l  and  made  her  the  toast 
of  Edinburgh.  Accustomed  to  flattery,  she  was  not 
calculated  to  make  the  best  of  wives  for  the  unsophisti- 
cated man  of  science.  She  vented  her  temper  on  him 
during  the  foreign  tour  they  took  in  the  year  following 
their  marriage,  by  the  special  permission  of  Napoleon, 
with  Faraday  as  their  companion,  so  that,  as  Davy's 
illustrious  successor  bitterly  recorded,  she  "made  it 
oftentimes  go  wrong  with  me,  with  herself,  and  with 
Sir  Humphry."  "  Lady  Davy,"  said  Rogers,  in  reply  to 
a  challenge  across  the  table,  "  I  pass  my  life  in  defending 
you."  Still,  she  numbered  many  distinguished  men — Sir 
Walter  Scott,  Moore,  and  Sydney  Smith,  for  instance — 
among  her  friends,  and  could  be,  when  she  chose,  both 
interesting  and  agreeable. 

Davy  himself  is  said  to  have  annoyed  the  French 
savants  by  the  flippancy  of  his  manner,  and  his  out- 
spoken biographer  declares  that  after  marriage  "his 
feelings  became  more  aristocratic,  he  discovered  charms 
in  rank  which  had  before  escaped  him,  and  he  no  longer 
viewed  patrician  distinction  with  philosophic  indiffer- 
ence." Yet  easy  circumstances  and  social  ambitions, 
though  they  may  have  diminished  his  devotion  to 
science,  failed  to  destroy  it.  The  Felling  Colliery  acci- 
dent roused  him  to  invent  the  safety  lamp  with  which  his 
name  is  inseparably  connected,  and  for  which  he  denied 
himself  any  reward.  "  More  wealth,"  he  remarked,  with 


250  THE  HOLLAND  HOUSE  CIRCLE 

ingenuous  vanity,  "  might  enable  me  to  put  four  horses  to 
my  carriage,  but  what  would  it  avail  me  to  have  it  said 
that  Sir  Humphry  drives  his  carriage  and  four?"  To 
the  last  he  was  ready  with  advice  and  assistance  to  rising 
investigators;  and  though  declining  powers  ruined  his 
plan  for  sheathing  vessels  of  war,  the  devotion  with 
which  he  placed  his  talents  at  the  public  disposal  was 
none  the  less  conspicuous.  As  his  health  failed  he  tried 
to  resuscitate  it  by  fishing  and  shooting.  Poole,  of 
Nether  Stowey,  the  friend  of  Davy  and  the  Lake  poets, 
related  that  in  1827,  two  years  before  his  death,  he  rode 
to  the  covers  on  his  pony,  with  his  dogs  around  him, 
and  his  servant  carrying  the  gun,  which  he  never 
fired. 

Their  contemporaries  frequently  contrasted  Davy  with 
Wollaston,  who  declined  to  stand  against  him  for  the 
Presidency  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  whom  Sir  Humphry 
converted  into  an  expert  fly-fisher  when  he  had  nearly 
reached  the  age  of  fifty.  Paris  has  summed  up  the 
difference  between  them  in  some  telling  sentences  : 

"  Davy  was  ever  imagining  something  greater  than  he 
knew ;  Wollaston  always  knew  something  more  than  he 
acknowledged.  In  Wollaston  the  predominant  principle 
was  to  avoid  error;  in  Davy,  it  was  the  desire  to  discover 
truth.  The  tendency  of  Davy,  on  all  occasions,  was  to  raise 
probabilities  into  facts  ;  while  Wollaston,  as  constantly, 
made  them  subservient  to  the  expression  of  doubt." 

Sir  Henry  Holland,  in  his  "  Recollections  of  Past 
Life,"  also  touches  on  Wollaston's  sternly  logical  and 
sceptical  turn  of  mind  as  a  hindrance  to  his  career, 
and  tells  how  he  took  calm  but  careful  note  of  his 


MEN  OF  SCIENCE  251 

Own  decay,  in  the  functions  of  the  senses,  the  memory, 
and  the  will-power.  Wollaston's  investigations,  there- 
fore, never  led  him  to  those  broad  generalisations  on 
which  new  systems  of  philosophy  are  built.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  discoveries  to  which  he  devoted  his 
life  advanced  nearly  every  branch  of  science,  including 
"  pathology,  physiology,  chemistry,  optics,  mineralogy, 
crystallography,  astronomy,  electricity,  mechanics,  and 
botany."  Unlike  Davy  with  his  safety  lamp,  Wollaston 
kept  the  secret  of  pure  platinum  to  himself,  and  so 
acquired  a  considerable  fortune.  Though  his  life  was 
mainly  spent  in  his  laboratory  at  Buckingham  Street, 
Fitzroy  Square,  he  took  interest  in  public  events,  and 
though  reserved  about  his  own  affairs,  was  pleasant  to 
meet.  Lockhart  heard  him  describing  a  coursing  match 
near  Abbotsford,  when  with  his  "  noble,  serene  dignity 
of  countenance  he  might  have  passed  for  a  sporting 
Archbishop." 

Michael  Faraday,  Davy's  greatest  pupil,  is  not  included 
by  Princess  Liechtenstein  in  her  list  of  visitors  at  Holland 
House,  a  list  which,  as  it  was  drawn  up  for  Sir  James 
Mackintosh,  must  have  been  compiled  before  his  death 
in  1832.  The  omission  is  probably  deliberate,  for  his 
correspondence  with  various  members  of  the  family,  as 
printed  in  Bence  Jones's  biography,  is  too  formal  for 
any  acquaintanceship.  They  came,  however,  at  the 
instigation  of  Sir  James  South,  to  the  rescue  of  Faraday 
after  his  application  for  a  pension  had  been  treated  by 
Lord  Melbourne  in  a  manner  which  the  Prime  Minister 
himself  afterwards  acknowledged  to  have  been  "too 
blunt  and  inconsiderate."  The  aggrieved  man  of  science 
insisted  on  a  written  letter  of  apology,  and  it  was  through 
the  good  offices  of  Miss  Fox,  or  of  Lady  Mary,  General 


Fox's  wife,  that  a  handsome  withdrawal  of  all  wounding 
expressions  was  obtained. 

The  par  nobile  fratum,  Alexander  and  William  von 
Humboldt,  were  guests  of  Holland  House  during  their 
occasional  visits  to  this  country.  The  mission  of  William, 
the  elder  and  less  famous  of  the  two,  was  diplomatic.  As 
Prussian  Plenipotentiary  the  statesman-philosopher  had  a 
hand  in  the  settlement  of  Europe  after  the  overthrow  of 
Napoleon.  In  that  capacity  he  was  summoned  to  London 
on  more  than  one  occasion  before  the  reactionary  policy 
of  his  Government  drove  him,  in  1819,  to  abandon  affairs 
and  to  take  up  instead  the  science  of  language.  Alex- 
ander von  Humboldt  knew  English  society  earlier  and 
more  intimately,  and  after  he  had  established  himself  in 
Paris  to  produce  his  monumental  work  on  the  physical 
geography  of  South  America — between  1805,  that  is, 
and  1827 — he  delighted  to  return  the  hospitality  of  his 
English  friends.  "There  are  few  heroes,"  wrote  Sir 
Charles  Lyell  of  him  at  this  time,  "who  lose  so  little 
by  being  approached  as  Humboldt  :  of  Cuvier  this 
cannot  be  said."  The  geographer  was  loquacious,  but 
his  own  exploits  seldom  formed  the  theme.  He  was 
equally  at  home  in  the  laboratory  and  the  salon.  Karl 
Vogt  declared  that  he  went  to  at  least  five  receptions 
every  evening,  and  on  each  occasion  related  the  same 
incident  with  variations.  After  he  had  talked  for  half  an 
hour  he  rose,  made  a  bow,  and  then,  retiring  with  some 
one  for  a  few  minutes'  whispered  conversation,  he  slipped 
away  quietly  to  the  door.  His  conversation  was  lively, 
and  he  was  not  sparing  of  sarcasm.  "  I  shall  never 
leave,"  impatiently  said  a  young  lady  at  a  reception, 
"as  long  as  that  gentleman  remains  ;  I  should  not  like 
to  be  the  object  of  his  remarks."  Arago,  the  astronomer, 


MEN  OF  SCIENCE  253 

whose  friendship  with  Humboldt  was  not  unattended 
with  tiffs,  used  to  tease  him  by  recalling  this  set-down. 

The  two  were  companions  during  a  stay  in  England  in 
1818,  the  last  of  three  visits  paid  by  Humboldt,  either  in 
the  suite  of  the  King  of  Prussia  or  as  an  instructor  of 
diplomacy  on  its  geographical  side.  When  he  was  finally 
established  at  Berlin  as  "  the  most  besieged  inquiry-office 
in  the  country  "  and  the  dining  companion  of  the  King, 
Humboldt  was  fond  of  imparting  to  English  travellers 
his  reminiscences  of  the  men  of  science  and  affairs  he 
had  met  in  London  when  the  nineteenth  century  was 
young.  Yet  he  was  no  great  admirer  of  the  nation, 
chiefly,  it  would  seem,  because  it  had  never  cultivated 
the  free-and-easy  manners  of  the  cafe.  "  This  England 
is  a  detestable  country,"  he  wrote  ;  "  at  nine  o'clock  you 
must  wear  your  necktie  in  this  style,  at  ten  o'clock  in  that, 
and  at  eleven  o'clock  in  another  fashion." 

Natural  history  was  represented  at  Holland  House  by 
Charles  Waterton,  gaunt  of  limb,  who  celebrated  his 
eightieth  birthday  by  climbing  an  oak-tree  in  the  park 
of  Walton  Hall,  his  estate.  It  may  be  that  Sydney 
Smith's  facetious  review  of  his  "Wanderings  in  South 
America  "  in  the  Edinburgh  formed  the  connecting  link, 
since  it  did  justice  to  a  work  which  only  just  misses  being 
a  classic,  while  it  aired  its  author's  powers  of  quizzing. 

Nor  were  distinguished  surgeons  wanting,  like  Sir 
Benjamin  Brodie,  the  elder,  President  of  the  Royal 
Society  and  Sergeant-Surgeon  to  William  IV.,  who 
materially  advanced  the  scientific  knowledge  of  the 
relations  between  the  brain  and  the  heart.  His  auto- 
biography, though  chiefly  devoted  to  his  profession, 
records  his  first  visit  to  Holland  House,  in  the  year 
1814  or  1815,  his  brother-in-law,  Marsh,  having  been 


254  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Lord  Holland's  tutor  at  Christ  Church,  and  Lord  Holland 
having  been  admitted  to  the  Royal  Society  on  the  day 
that  Brodie  received  the  Copley  medal.  An  intimacy  of 
a  quarter  of  a  century  succeeded,  but  the  great  surgeon's 
description  of  the  circle  is  commonplace,  except  for  the 
touch  of  nature  that  : 

"  I  know  not  how  it  was  that  they  liked  me  at  first 
so  well  as  they  did,  for  in  general  society  I  was  at  the 
time,  and  for  some  years  afterwards,  a  shy  and  deficient 
young  man,  contributing  but  little  to  conversation,  and 
not  feeling  myself  at  home  among  the  politicians  and 
persons  of  rank  who  met  at  Holland  House,  as  I  did 
among  my  friends  of  the  Royal  Society  and  those  of  my 
own  profession  or  of  the  law." 

Sir  Henry  Holland,  whose  "  Recollections  "  have  been 
quoted  more  than  once  in  this  volume,  must  have  found 
entrance  into  society  an  easier  matter  than  young  Brodie, 
who  had  come  from  a  Wiltshire  parsonage  to  the  hos- 
pitals. Extensive  travel  gave  him  a  knowledge  of  the 
world ;  as  Sydney  Smith's  son-in-law  he  had  little 
chance  of  allowing  his  wits  to  become  rusty ;  while, 
on  his  own  account,  he  cultivated  a  pleasant  bedside 
manner,  or,  as  he  termed  it, "  the  frequent  half-hour  of 
genial  conversation,"  with  his  patients.  The  Andrew 
Clark  of  his  day,  he  must  have  known  many  social 
secrets,  and  it  is  to  his  credit  that  no  scandal,  not  even 
about  Queen  Caroline,  appears  in  his  amiable,  if  rather 
colourless,  autobiography. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS 

Serious  Whiggism — Dugald  Stewart  and  Bentham — Jeffrey — 
Mackintosh's  beginnings — The  King  of  Clubs — Mackintosh  in  con- 
versation— His  residence  in  India — Mackintosh  in  the  House — In 
bondage  to  the  Whigs — Ignored  and  slighted — A  literary  lotus- 
eater — Francis  Horner — His  arrival  in  London — Horner  in 
society — As  member  for  St.  Ives — Nominee  for  St.  Mawes — The 
Bullion  Committee — Homer's  illness  and  death — Romilly  and 
Dumont — Romilly's  parliamentary  diary — The  criminal  law — 
Hominy's  reforms — A  peace-at-any-price  man — Romilly's  character 
and  death. 

THE  years  of  the  Liverpool  Ministry  witnessed  the 
affliction  of  the  Whig  party,  but  they  also  coin- 
cided with  its  regeneration.     The  politicians  who 
came  to  the  front  on  that  side — Brougham,  with  all  his 
faults,  Horner  and  Romilly — belonged  to  an  altogether 
different  school  from  the  roystering  irresponsibility  of 
Fox,  Sheridan,  and  Erskine.    They  meditated  seriously 
upon  serious  things,  and  brought  to  debate  the  principles 
of  humane  legislation  which  they  had  acquired  from  the 
treatises  of   Bentham  and  the    habits    of  systematised 
thought  which  Dugald  Stewart  had  imparted  to  them. 
Neither  of  those  luminaries  was  intimately  associated 
with   Holland   House  in   the  days   of  the    third    peer. 
Dugald  Stewart  was  established  in  Edinburgh,  where  he 


256  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

formed  the  minds  of  more  statesmen  than  any  philo- 
sopher before  or  after  his  day,  young  Tories  like  Lord 
Palmerston  and  Lord  Dudley  resorting  to  him  no  less 
than   Whigs    like    Lord    Lansdowne    and    Brougham. 
Bentham,  some  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  had  retired  to  his  "  Hermitage  "  in  Queen 
Square  Place,  Westminster.    There  he  contented  himself 
with    "  anteprandial   circumgyrations "  of  a  garden,  in 
which   the    poor    show    of    gooseberries    and   currants 
grieved  him,  and  with  the  society  of  his  secretaries  and 
his  cat,  knighted  as  Sir  John  Langborn,  but  renamed  in 
its  sedate  old  age  the  Reverend  John  Langborn.     On  rare 
occasions  he  entertained  tete-a-tete  at  dinner  some  dis- 
tinguished man  like  Talleyrand.     From  that  retreat,  how- 
ever, he  conducted  a  correspondence  with  Holland  House, 
in  which  the  fantastic  dreams  of  the  recluse  contrast  with 
the  good  sense  of  the  man  of  affairs.     In  1809,  while 
travelling  in  Spain,  Lord  Holland  furthered  Bentham's 
strange  project  of  settling  on  the  tableland  of  Mexico — an 
idea  ultimately  dropped  in  consequence  of  the  remon- 
strances of  his   friends — by  enlisting  the  advice  of  the 
Liberal  statesman,  Jovellanos.      But  he  descended  with 
vigour    on    the    philosopher's  whimsical    advocacy    of 
"  Brithibernia "  as  a  title  for  the  United  Kingdom  calcu- 
lated to   conciliate  the  Irish.      He  replied  that  though 
names  had  unquestionably  great  influence  on  mankind, 
it  was  less  certain  that  princes  or  Parliaments  had  power 
to  change  them. 

The  rallying-ground  of  young  Whiggism  was  the 
Edinburgh  Review;  and  whenever  its  editor,  Jeffrey, 
visited  London  he  was  made  welcome.  But  such 
appearances  on  the  part  of  the  hard-working  Scots 
lawyer  and  vigorous,  if  obscurantist,  writer  were  com- 


SIR  JAMKS   MACKINTOSH 

FROM   THE  PAINTING    BV   SIR   THOMAS   LAWKKNCE,  I'.R.A.,  IN    THE   NATIONAL   PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


THE   NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS  257 

paratively  rare,  except  during  the  brief  period  when  he 
sat  in  the  Reform  Parliament  as  member  for  Perth, 
Malton,  and  Edinburgh.  In  1811  his  London  campaign, 
which  he  closed  with  a  sense  of  release,  included  a  large 
dinner-party  at  Holland  House,  where  the  hostess  was 
"  in  great  gentleness  and  softness,"  and  where  he  failed 
to  appreciate  the  charm  of  Lady  Caroline  Lamb.  Jeffrey 
kept  up  a  constant  correspondence  with  Allen,  one  of 
his  reviewers.  He  does  not  appear,  however,  to  have 
revisited  Holland  House  before  1840,  when  he  had  "a 
sweet  walk  under  the  cedars  and  in  the  garden,  where  he 
listened  in  vain  for  the  nightingales ;  though  Lord 
Holland  and  Allen  challenged  them  to  answer  by  divers 
fat  and  asthmatical  whistles."  During  the  same  stay  in 
London  he  was  asked  to  dine  on  Sunday  en  famille,  but 
found  sixteen  people — foreign  Ambassadors  and  every- 
body ;  and  a  second  dinner  followed  on  the  Tuesday — 
present,  Lord  Melbourne,  Lord  John  Russell  and  Guizot. 
Jeffrey  kept  up  his  acquaintance  with  Lady  Holland  in 
her  widowhood,  and  dined  with  her  within  four  days  of 
Allen's  death. 

Mackintosh,  who  was  an  Edinburgh  reviewer,  a  partial 
disciple  of  Dugald  Stewart,  and  a  preacher,  with  varia- 
tions, of  Benthamite  doctrines,  combined  the  three 
influences  mentioned  above.  His  vast  learning  he 
picked  up  while  he  was  ostensibly  an  idle  student  at 
King's  College,  Aberdeen,  and  qualifying  as  a  doctor  at 
Edinburgh  University.  It  included  a  smattering  of  the 
classics,  the  whole  range  of  history  and  metaphysics; 
he  "  had  waded  through  morasses  of  international  law," 
wrote  Sydney  Smith,  "where  the  step  of  no  living  man 
could  follow  him,"  and  he  understood,  without  appre- 
ciating, political  economy.  By  the  beginning  of  the 


258  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

nineteenth  century  Mackintosh  had  made  a  political 
reputation  by  his  "  Vindiciae  Gallicse,"  a  reply  to  Burke's 
"Reflections  on  the  French  Revolution,"  a  polemic 
containing  boisterous  Whig  opinions,  which  he  soon 
abandoned  for  a  regret  "of  having  been  once  betrayed 
into  an  approbation  of  that  conspiracy  against  God  and 
man."  Mackintosh  had  also  made  a  legal  reputation  by 
his  course  of  lectures  on  "The  Law  of  Nature  and 
Nations,"  delivered  in  Lincoln's  Inn.  He  was  making 
an  income  at  the  Bar,  which  in  1803,  the  last  year  of  his 
practice,  exceeded  .£1,200. 

Above  all,  Mackintosh  had  discovered  his  most  con- 
genial resource,  learned  and  literary  intercourse,  in  the 
King  of  Clubs,  which  was  founded  by  Bobus  Smith 
and  himself  at  his  house  in  Serle  Street,  Chancery  Lane, 
in  February,  1798.  The  original  members,  besides  the 
originators,  were  Rogers,  "Conversation"  Sharp,  Scarlett, 
and  John  Allen.  To  them  were  added,  amongst  others, 
Lord  Holland,  Brougham,  Person,  Romilly,  Sydney 
Smith,  Jeffrey,  Luttrell,  Hallam,  Lord  Dudley,  and 
Ricardo.  The  King  of  Clubs  was  a  dining  club,  like 
the  Eumelian  and  many  more,  and  it  first  me-t  once  a 
month  at  the  "Crown  and  Anchor,"  in  the  Strand,  though 
it  afterwards  migrated  from  hotel  to  hotel.  It  long 
survived  Mackintosh's  absence  in  India,  from  1804  to 
1811,  and  finally  expired,  apparently  of  a  superfluity  of 
brilliance,  which  comes  to  much  the  same  thing  as 
boredom,  about  I823.1 

Talk  at  the  King  of  Clubs,  at  Holland  House,  or  any- 

1  The  best  account  of  the  King  of  Clubs,  containing  some  new 
information,  is  to  be  found  in  a  chapter  contributed  by  Mr.  W.  P. 
Courtney  to  "The  Pope  of  Holland  House:  Selections  from  the 
Correspondence  of  John  Wishaw  and  his  Friends,"  edited  by  Lady 
Seymour, 


THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS  259 

where  else  in  cultivated  society,  formed  the  main  object 
of  Mackintosh's  life.  Rogers  lamented  that  he  had 
sacrificed  himself  to  conversation;  that  he  read  for  it, 
thought  for  it,  and  gave  up  future  fame  for  it.  He 
was  not  for  all  time,  but  of  his  age.  Still,  every  man 
has  a  right,  within  limits,  to  order  his  days  as  he  pleases, 
and  there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  pleasure  imparted 
by  Sir  James  to  his  contemporaries.  Lord  John  Russell, 
Macaulay,  and  Sydney  Smith  have  all  attempted  to 
analyse  his  conversation,  and  the  last  of  the  three 
probably  comes  nearest  to  the  reality.  Mackintosh's 
memory  was  prodigious,  and  it  was  always  under 
command.  He  passed,  said  Tom  Grenville,  from 
Voltaire's  letters  to  Sylvia  up  to  the  most  voluminous 
details  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  He  argued,  not  for 
dialectical  victory,  but  for  the  elucidation  of  truth,  and 
his  language  might  have  gone  from  the  fireside  to  the 
press.  Mackintosh,  besides,  had  the  power  of  putting 
things  so  mildly  and  interrogatively,  that  he  always 
gained  the  readiest  reception  for  his  opinions.  He 
was  too  eulogistic,  and  sometimes  clothed  common 
ideas  in  over-impressive  phraseology.  But  Sir  Henry 
Holland  attributes  to  him,  in  common  with  Madame 
de  Stae'l,  "  the  power  of  putting  an  argument  into  its 
most  pithy  form — a  wit  of  speech,  apart  from  that  gift 
of  humour  to  which  neither  of  them  could  lay  much 
claim."  On  this  point  Sydney  Smith  differs.  Mackintosh 
had  a  good  deal  of  humour,  and  he  relates  how  Sir 
James  kept  up  a  perfect  comedy  for  several  hours  at  the 
expense  of  a  simple  Scotch  cousin,  who  had  mistaken 
him,  Sydney,  for  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  the  hero  of  Acre. 
Horner  thought  less  of  him  than  others  did,  and  com- 
plained that  he  did  injustice  to  his  own  talents  for 


26o  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

discursive  and  descriptive  conversation  when  he  forced 
them  out  of  their  way  to  an  imitation  of  Bobus  Smith's 
smartness  and  point  and  sarcasm.  Mackintosh  often 
conversed  on  his  legs,  and  observers  remarked,  as 
characteristic  of  his  self-distrust,  that  he  would  advance 
three  or  four  steps  forward,  and  then,  as  if  suddenly 
recollecting  himself,  retire  again. 

Futility,  indeed,  cannot  be  dissociated  from  this 
benevolent  man,  whom  his  generation  compared  to 
Burke,  but  whom  posterity  has  assuredly  accepted  as 
Burke  dimidiatus.  He  was  a  child  in  the  common 
affairs  of  life,  ignorant  of  the  value  of  money,  and 
totally  deficient  in  the  arts  of  self-advancement.  The 
temptations  of  a  settled  income  and  of  a  pension  that 
would  give  him  leisure  for  literature  induced  him  in 
1803  to  accept  from  Addington  the  recordership  of 
Bombay,  to  the  unjust  resentment  of  his  political  friends. 
Thirteen  years  afterwards  he  returned,  as  it  was  said, 
with  all  the  diseases  and  none  of  the  wealth  of  the  East. 
Approached  by  the  Tory  Government,  he  remained  faith- 
ful to  the  Whigs,  though  the  mild  reasonableness  of  his 
politics  would  have  largely  palliated  a  change  of  sides. 

Nevertheless,  Dr.  Parr's  ferocious  epigram1  pursued 
Mackintosh,  and  he  was  an  apostate  to  faction-mongers 
like  Whitbread  and  Creevey.  As  member  for  the  county 
of  Nairn,  and  afterwards  for  Knaresborough,  he  failed  to 
gain  the  ear  of  the  House,  making,  says  Sydney  Smith, 
"rather  a  lecture  or  a  dissertation  than  a  speech.  His 
voice  was  bad  and  nasal;  and  though  nobody  was  in 
reality  more  sincere,  he  seemed  not  only  not  to  feel,  but 
hardly  to  think  what  he  was  saying."  Mackintosh's 
propensity  to  inflict  oratorical  essays  on  his  hearers 
1  See  p.  166. 


THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS  261 

must  be  pronounced  the  more  perverse,  because  he 
defined  the  correct  style,  happily  enough,  as  "an  ani- 
mated conversation  on  public  business."  Tierney  had 
some  reason  for  his  complaint  that  Mackintosh  could  be 
relied  on  for  a  sound  opinion  "on  Cardinal  Wolsey  or 
so,"  but  was  useless  for  any  matter  at  hand.  He  did, 
nevertheless,  carry  on  Romilly's  mission,  the  reform  of 
the  criminal  code,  until  Peel  took  it  up  with  a  more 
practical  grasp. 

Mackintosh's  son  and  biographer,  Robert  James 
Mackintosh,  reflects  bitterly  but  not  unjustly  on  his 
father's  treatment  by  the  Whigs.  They  never  would 
let  him  cut  himself  clear  of  politics,  though  Parliament 
distracted  him  from  the  writing  of  his  "  History  of 
England."  In  1820,  when  he  was  holding  the  pro- 
fessorship of  Law  and  General  Politics  in  the  East 
India  College,  Haileybury,  an  appointment  worth  a 
meagre  £300  a  year,  he  was  offered  the  succession  to 
Thomas  Brown  in  the  chair  of  Modern  Philosophy  at 
Edinburgh.  "That  which  six-and-thirty  years  ago  was 
the  object  of  his  ambition,"  he  thought,  "  might  now 
afford  an  eligible  retirement."  Mackintosh  was  an  ideal 
man  for  the  post,  but  with  weak  amiability  he  yielded 
to  the  solicitations  of  his  political  friends  and  renounced 
the  project,  greatly  to  his  subsequent  regret. 

In  the  result  Mackintosh  was  wholly  ignored  by  the 
Whigs  when  they  submitted  to  Canning  their  candidates 
for  office  in  his  Coalition  Government,  much  to  the 
astonishment  of  Canning  himself ;  and  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  appointments  in  1830  he  was  fobbed  off  with  a 
seat  on  the  India  Commission.  His  health  was  im- 
paired, no  doubt,  and  indolence  and  inexperience 
could  be  adduced  against  him  as  a  bar  to  Cabinet 


262  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

rank.  But,  when  it  is  remembered  that  room  was 
found  in  the  Reform  Government  for  Charles  Grant  and 
Charles  Wynn,  the  truth  of  Sydney  Smith's  reflection 
becomes  manifest  that  Mackintosh  would  have  acted  a 
great  part  in  life,  "  if  only  he  had  had  a  little  more  pru- 
dence for  the  promotion  of  his  interests,  and  more  of 
angry  passions  for  the  punishment  of  those  detractors 
who  envied  his  fame  and  presumed  upon  his  sweetness." 
What  between  politics,  literature,  illness,  and  pro- 
crastination, Mackintosh  left  nothing  behind  him  that 
has  endured.  Throughout  the  greater  part  of  his  life 
he  was  oppressed  by  a  want  of  pence,  and,  after  he 
resigned  his  chair  at  Haileybury  in  1824,  he  availed 
himself  of  Lord  Holland's  hospitality  and  made 
Ampthill  his  home  for  several  years.  Yet  it  needed  a 
stern  taskmaster  like  Dr.  Lardner  to  make  Mackintosh 
produce  even  such  facile  hackwork  as  the  "  History  of 
England "  and  "  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  More "  which  he 
contributed  to  the  "Cabinet  Encyclopaedia"  of  that 
vigorous  editor.  His  "  Dissertation  on  the  Progress  of 
Ethical  Philosophy,"  a  supplement  to  the  "Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,"  is  none  too  perspicuous,  and  its  inaccuracies 
gained  it  a  castigation  from  James  Mill.  Mackintosh's 
"History  of  the  Revolution  in  England"  remains  a 
fragment  which,  though  dignified  and  judicial,  is  so 
overloaded  with  disquisition  that  its  completion  on  the 
original  scale  would  have  been  an  impossibility.  Lord 
Holland  said  that  Mackintosh  was  the  only  Scotchman 
he  ever  knew  who  felt  the  delight  of  lounging.  He 
took  four  or  five  days  to  decide  whether  "  utility "  or 
"usefulness"  was  the  better  word,  and  had  not  made 
up  his  mind  when  his  visitor,  Lord  Nugent,  left  him. 
That  is  literary  lotus-eating  indeed  ;  and  thus  it  was 


FRANCIS   HORNER 

KROM    THE   I'AIMTING   BV  SIR   HRNRV   RAEBURN,  R.A.,  IN    THE   NATIONAL   PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS  263 

that  when  Mackintosh  was  asked  on  what  his  reputa- 
tion depended,  he  referred  his  questioners  "  as  usual 
to  his  projects."  Among  them  was  an  historical  account 
of  Holland  House. 

Francis  Horner  was  not  wanting  in  those  practical 
abilities  which  Mackintosh  lacked.  If  he  had  lived  some 
eighteen  years  longer  he  might  well  have  become,  not 
indeed  Prime  Minister,  as  some  of  his  friends  pardonably 
thought,  when  in  1817  he  was  snatched  away  from 
them — there  his  mercantile  origin  would  have  stopped 
the  way — but  a  much  abler  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
than  Spring-Rice,  or  a  firmer  Colonial  Secretary  than 
Lord  Glenelg.  As  things  were,  Horner  earned  the 
enviable  memory  attaching  to  talents  and  integrity  pre- 
maturely lost  to  the  world.  Sydney  Smith  could  not 
remember  an  impression  so  general  as  that  excited  by 
his  death,  and  the  House  of  Commons  has  witnessed 
few  scenes  more  affecting  than  when  Canning  united 
with  Romilly  in  eulogising  his  virtues. 

Horner  unquestionably  owed  not  a  little  to  Edinburgh 
and  Dugald  Stewart.  He  was  regarded  as  having 
issued  from  the  right  mint,  when,  in  1802,  he  resolved 
on  being  called  to  the  English  Bar.  The  compact  little 
band  of  Scots  in  London  and  their  English  allies,  like 
Bobus  Smith  and  Scarlett,  received  him  with  open 
arms,  and  his  modesty  and  quiet  sincerity  won  him 
their  esteem,  with  the  solitary  and  unworthy  exception 
of  Brougham.  He  was  taken  to  the  King  of  Clubs, 
where  he  found  the  presence  of  Romilly  acting  as  a 
restraint,  and  displays  of  memory  prevailing  over  dis- 
cussions of  opinion.  He  scrutinised  his  brother 
barristers,  and  reported  that  they  were  illiberal  and 
capable  only  of  labouring  on  a  brief. 


264  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

March,  1803,  saw  Horner  finally  established  in  town, 
having  assisted  in  the  meanwhile  in  founding  the 
Edinburgh  Review.  Sydney  Smith  described  him  as 
living  very  high  up  in  Garden  Court,  Temple,  and 
thinking  a  good  deal  about  mankind.  It  is  permis- 
sible to  suggest  that  Horner  was  a  trifle  dull ;  he  put 
Sir  Walter  Scott  in  mind  of  Obadiah's  bull  in  "Tristram 
Shandy,"  and  laid  no  claims  to  wit,  while  avoiding 
what  Sydney  Smith  called  the  infinitely  distressing 
variety  of  "wut."  But  from  that  same  authority  we 
learn  that  he  was  affectionate  and  truthful,  "the  Com- 
mandments were  written  on  his  face";  while  Lord 
Dudley  lamented  him  as  by  far  the  best  and  wisest 
man  with  whose  friendship  he  was  ever  honoured. 
Yet  Lord  Dudley  associated  with  all  the  finest  spirits 
in  literature  and  politics. 

By  the  end  of  the  London  season  of  1805,  Horner  had 
made  his  way  to  Holland  House,  and  expressed  himself 
to  Lord  Webb  Seymour  as  delighted  with  the  spirited 
understandings  and  sweet  dispositions  of  Lord  Holland 
and  Miss  Fox,  both  of  their  uncle's  make.  The  serious 
young  man  of  twenty-seven  soon  became  a  repository  of 
Whig  secrets,  and  his  diary  records  authentic  details 
of  the  formation  of  the  "Talents"  Administration, 
together  with  such  characteristic  memoranda  as — "Use 
to  be  made  of  individual  minds,  Sharp,  Rogers, 
Whishaw,  Smyth,  Dumont."  He  also  established  him- 
self in  Lady  Holland's  good  graces,  and  after  the 
influence  of  Lord  Henry  Petty  and  Lord  Kinnaird 
had  brought  him  into  Parliament  as  member  for 
St.  Ives,  she  seems  to  have  created  him  her  reporter- 
in-chief.  Horner's  comments  on  debate  were  pithy ; 
he  hit  off  Windham,  when  about  to  speak,  sitting 


THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS  265 

quite  absorbed,  and  growling  if  any  one  approached 
him  ;  and  characterised  Speaker  Abbot's  praise  of  the 
Ministry,  at  the  close  of  the  session  of  1813,  for  its 
resistance  to  the  Catholic  claims,  as  "more  like  the 
panegyrics  that  the  French  Government  pronounces 
upon  itself  by  the  mouth  of  a  senator  or  tribune,  than 
the  propriety  and  reserve  that  ought  to  be  adhered  to 
by  the  president  of  an  assembly  really  free." 

Horner  represented  the  pocket-borough  system  on  its 
most  defensible  side,  a  point  adroitly  made  by  Canning 
in  his  obituary  speech.  The  independence  of  mind 
which  caused  him  to  decline  the  prospective  appoint- 
ment of  Financial  Secretary  to  the  Treasury,  on  the 
ground  that  he  had  resolved  not  to  take  office  until 
he  was  rich  enough  to  live  at  ease  when  out  of  office,  did 
not  desert  him  when  he  became  the  Marquis  of  Bucking- 
ham's nominee  for  St.  Mawes.  When  he  voted,  after 
Napoleon's  return  from  Elba,  for  Whitbread's  motion 
directed  against  a  resumption  of  hostilities,  he  offered 
to  resign  his  seat,  but  his  patron,  in  an  honourable  letter, 
declined  to  take  him  at  his  word.  "Though  put  into 
Parliament  by  some  of  the  great  borough  lords,"  wrote 
Sydney  Smith,  "  every  one  saw  that  he  represented  his 
own  real  opinions." 

With  his  invariable  good  sense,  Horner,  after  Jeffrey 
had  spurred  him  on  to  exert  himself,  approached  the 
House  on  the  state  of  the  currency,  a  topic  on  which  his 
Edinburgh  training  had  qualified  him  to  express  a  sound 
opinion.  He  obtained  the  appointment  of  the  Bullion 
Committee,  acted  as  its  chairman,  and  though  the 
resolutions  he  based  on  its  report  were  defeated,  his 
exertions  eventually  led  to  the  resumption  of  cash 
payments.  His  advocacy  of  honest  finance  was  the 


266  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

more  creditable  because  it  arrayed  the  banking  interest 
against  him — a  hostility  which  he  disarmed,  however, 
by  his  opposition  to  the  Corn  Bill  of  1815.  On  foreign 
policy  he  had  his  full  share  of  the  limitation  of  outlook 
that  afflicted  the  Whigs  throughout  the  Napoleonic 
period. 

Horner,  long  since  a  general  favourite  with  the  House, 
was  fast  improving  as  a  speaker  when,  in  the  summer  of 
1816,  his  health,  which,  with  a  consumptive's  heedlessness, 
he  had  neglected,  completely  collapsed.  The  concern 
of  his  friends,  Holland  House  at  their  head,  was 
extreme,  and  if  solicitude  ever  saved  the  life  of  a  man, 
that  man  would  have  been  Francis  Horner.  But 
eminent  doctors  were  consulted  too  late,  and  he  went 
southward  to  die  at  Pisa,  leaving  behind  him  a 
manuscript  volume  of  "  Designs,"  which  embraced 
subjects  so  various  as  the  study  of  the  rhythm  of 
English  prose  and  questions  to  be  put  in  the  House 
of  Commons  on  the  sinking  fund  and  debt.  The 
inscription  on  Chantrey's  monument  to  him  in  West- 
minster Abbey  duly  comments  on  the  "expectations 
which  premature  death  could  alone  have  frustrated." 

Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  for  whom  Horner  offered  to 
stand  aside  at  St.  Mawes,  belonged  to  an  austerer 
school  of  Whiggism  than  the  friend  whom  he  sur- 
vived by  less  than  two  years.  His  upbringing  among 
the  gaunt  religious  surroundings  of  the  French 
Protestant  colony  in  London  probably  deepened  the 
natural  gloom  of  his  disposition,  though  the  arrival 
of  youth  brought  cheerfulness  with  it.  Rousseau  was 
Romilly's  first  inspiration ;  Dumont,  who  was  after- 
wards to  be  the  secretary  of  Mirabeau  and  the  translator 
of  Jeremy  Bentham,  but  who  was  then  a  student  for 


THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS  267 

the  ministry  at  Geneva,  his  first  important  acquain- 
tance. The  young  barrister  was  thus  drawn  within 
the  current  of  the  French  Revolution  ;  he  gave 
Mirabeau  the  original  matter  of  his  pamphlet,  "  Lettre 
d'un  Voyageur  Anglais  sur  le  Prison  de  Bicetre,"  and 
drafted  for  the  use  of  the  States  General  a  statement 
of  the  procedure  in  the  House  of  Commons.  But 
Romilly,  like  Mackintosh,  soon  abandoned  his  zeal  for 
Revolutionary  principles,  and  suppressed  "Groenvelt's 
Letters,"  a  little  volume  of  reflections  on  French  and 
British  institutions  written  by  Dumont  and  himself.  He 
had  sown  his  political  wild  oats,  and  Bentham's  treatises 
on  the  reform  of  the  criminal  code  were  supplying  him 
with  a  motive  for  exertion  more  practical  than  the 
Rights  of  Man.  Practice  was  coming  to  him,  besides, 
at  first  slowly,  but  afterwards  rapidly,  and  by  1805  he  led 
in  the  Court  of  Chancery. 

Much  to  Romilly's  surprise  the  Prince  of  Wales  offered 
to  bring  him  into  Parliament,  wishing,  no  doubt,  to 
introduce  an  element  of  respectability  into  Carlton  House 
politics.  Romilly  entertained,  however,  the  most  rigid 
ideas  on  political  independence.  As  a  choice  of  evils 
he  preferred  buying  a  constituency  to  representing  it  as 
the  nominee  of  a  great  man,  and  he  had  accepted  the 
Solicitor-Generalship  in  the  "Talents"  Administration 
before  an  accommodating  M.P.  made  room  for  him  at 
Queensborough.  Romilly's  parliamentary  diary  is,  per- 
haps, the  strongest  searchlight  that  has  been  thrown  on 
the  politics  of  the  pre-Reform  epoch.  It  is  the  truthful 
record  of  a  mind  overprone  to  self-examination,  dis- 
satisfied with  existing  conditions,  and  given  to  censuring 
opponents,  especially  when  they  happened  to  belong 
to  the  legal  profession,  but  animated  by  a  noble  desire  to 


THE   HOLLAND  HOUSE  CIRCLE 

abolish  abuses  and  to  advance  the  condition  of  the  people. 
Few  statesmen,  with  the  shining  exception  of  Brougham, 
would  have  written  with  Romilly  in  1807  :  "  To  enable 
men  to  read  and  write  is,  as  it  were,  to  give  them  a 
new  sense.  We  cannot  prevent  those  who  are  in  the 
lowest  ranks  of  life  having  political  opinions  ;  and  few 
men  would  venture  to  avow  that  they  would  prevent  it 
if  they  could." 

The  "Talents"  Ministry  had  come  and  gone,  and 
Romilly,  besides  distinguishing  himself  by  summing  up 
the  evidence  against  Lord  Melville,  had  substantially 
amended  the  Bankruptcy  Acts,  before  he  set  his  hand 
to  the  work  of  his  life,  the  reform  of  the  criminal  law. 
The  resolve  came  upon  him  during  a  holiday  at  Cowes  in 
the  summer  of  1807.  That  law,  though  Draconian  in  the 
letter,  was,  on  the  whole,  humanely  administered.  Juries 
frequently  declined  to  convict  in  the  face  of  the  clearest 
evidence ;  or,  when  the  capital  sentence  depended  on 
the  value  of  the  thing  stolen,  they  were  induced  to  price 
the  articles  at  less  than  a  tenth  of  their  real  worth. 
Romilly  would  not  accept  Blackstone's  theory  that  such 
evasions  of  the  law  were  pious  perjuries.  Juries,  besides, 
were  liable  to  be  swayed  by  appeals  to  their  commercial 
instincts,  and  while  he  was  trying,  but  in  vain,  to  carry 
his  Shoplifting  Bill  a  boy  of  ten  was  lying  in  Newgate 
under  sentence  of  death. 

Romilly  shrank  from  proposing  a  general  scheme  of 
legal  reform,  and  endeavoured  instead  to  purge  the 
Statute-book  by  a  little  here  and  a  little  there.  Even 
so  the  forces  of  obscurantism,  as  represented  by  Lord 
Eldon,  Lord  Ellenborough,  and  Lord  Redesdale,  were 
too  strong  for  him,  and  unceremonious  rejection,  or 
at  best  mutilation,  awaited  most  of  his  measures.  The 


THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS  269 

abolition  of  the  death  penalty  for  private  stealing  from 
the  person,  and  for  stealing  from  bleaching-grounds, 
and  in  the  case  of  soldiers  and  sailors  who  were  found 
wandering  without  their  passes,  comprises  the  meagre 
sum  of  his  accomplishment.  He  also  amended  the  law 
of  treason  by  taking  away  corruption  of  blood,  under 
which  the  sins  of  the  fathers  were  visited  on  the 
children,  and  did  away  with  the  hideous  punishment 
of  disembowelling  and  quartering.  These  were  but 
small  results ;  still,  Romilly,  and  Mackintosh  after  him, 
made  ready  the  way  for  Peel,  who  between  1823  and 
1827  swept  away  over  250  statutes,  mostly  obsolete, 
but  all  barbarous. 

Romilly  might  conceivably  have  succeeded  better  as 
a  legal  reformer  if  he  had  been  less  thoroughly  identi- 
fied with  extreme  Whiggism,  not  only  in  such  legitimate 
matters  as  Catholic  Emancipation  and  the  freedom  of  the 
blacks,  but  also  in  Whitbread's  fantastic  peace-at-any- 
price  policy  after  Napoleon's  return  from  Elba,  even 
while  he  admitted  that  the  Emperor's  disavowals  of 
ambitious  designs  were  probably  insincere.  During  the 
sessions  of  1817  and  1818  he  was  practically  the  leader 
of  the  Opposition  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  some- 
times, it  must  be  confessed,  he  railed  rather  than  argued. 
Thus  he  was  not  ashamed  to  oppose  the  second  restora- 
tion of  Louis  XVIII.  on  the  ground  that  the  Sovereigns 
of  Europe,  including  France,  might  eventually  unite,  by 
way  of  imitation,  in  forcing  a  new  form  of  government 
on  England.  Such  unworthy  suggestions  were,  however, 
to  the  taste  of  a  party  embittered  by  long  exclusion 
from  office.  He  would  have  been  the  official  leader  of 
the  Whigs  in  the  House  of  Commons  if  his  practice 
had  not  interfered,  and  in  the  year  of  his  death  he 


2;o  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  poll  for  the  City  of 
Westminster,  though,  in  obedience  to  his  invariable  rule, 
he  kept  away  from  the  hustings  during  the  whole  of 
the  election.  The  Romilly  whose  diatribes  against  Lord 
Castlereagh's  foreign  policy  won  the  approval  of  Creevey 
was  thus  honoured,  we  may  suppose,  rather  than  the 
Romilly  whose  efforts  to  save  children  from  the  gallows, 
soldiers  from  being  flogged  to  death,  and  to  abate  the 
misery  of  the  Marshalsea,  Creevey  never  troubled  so 
much  as  to  mention. 

As  might  be  expected  with  a  man  who  tested  conduct 
by  the  first  principles  of  philosophy,  Romilly  seems  to 
have  been  regarded  with  some  awe  by  his  intimates.  He 
carried  the  austerity  so  marked  on  his  features  into 
general  society  ;  and  in  the  case  of  Perceval,  a  close 
associate  at  the  Bar,  he  permitted  political  differences 
to  break  off  an  old  friendship.  But  he  entertained 
strong  attachments  for  a  few,  among  whom  were  Scarlett 
and  Dumont,  and  no  more  devoted  husband  and  father 
ever  existed.  His  death,  by  his  own  hand,  on  Novem- 
ber 2,  1818,  was  directly  due,  in  fact,  to  that  of  Lady 
Romilly,  his  "dear  Anne,"  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  after 
much  suffering.  The  blow  plunged  him  into  a  deep 
melancholy,  which  should  have  been  more  carefully 
watched  by  those  about  him.  Had  proper  precautions 
been  taken,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  so  upright  a 
mind  as  Romilly's  would  not  ultimately  have  been  re- 
stored to  public  and  private  duties.  His  diary  frequently 
refers  to  the  happiness  of  a  life  in  which  every  profes- 
sional object  had  been  attained — he  distrusted  his 
capacity  for  the  office  of  Lord  Chancellor — while  he 
had  still  leisure  for  domestic  and  even  literary  enjoy- 
ment. A  severe  illness  in  1815  drew  from  him,  indeed, 


SIR  SAMUEL  ROMILLY 

FROM   THE    I'AINTING    BV   SIR   THOMAS   LAWRENCE,   P.R.A.,  IN    THE  NATIONAL  PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


THE  NEW  SCHOOL  OF  WHIGS  271 

the  gloomy  reflection  that  if  it  had  ended  in  death  it 
would  have  been  fortunate.  But  he  noted  the  suicide 
of  Whitbread  without  any  premonition  that  a  similar 
fate  awaited  himself ;  and,  if  only  he  had  rallied  from 
his  grief,  he  might  well  have  occupied  the  woolsack  in 
1830  instead  of  Brougham,  much  to  the  strengthening 
of  the  Grey  Administration. 


CHAPTER   XX 
LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS 

Brougham's  descent  from  the  North — A  breach  and  its  cause 
— Brougham  in  Parliament — His  championship  of  the  Princess — 
A  proposed  settlement — Queen  Caroline's  trial — Brougham  as  a 
reformer — On  the  woolsack — Brougham's  downfall — Lord  Mel- 
bourne's sentence — Brougham's  eccentricities — His  good  qualities 
— The  rise  of  Denman — Solicitor-General  to  Queen  Caroline — His 
speech  and  its  sequel — At  Holland  House — A  Whig  dinner-party — 
Plunket  and  the  Grenvilles — Irish  Attc  "ney-General  and  Chancellor 
— Plunket's  oratory  and  puns — John  Wishaw — "The  Pope''  and 
"the  Mufti" — Hothouse  and  Byron— Hobhouse  and  Burdett — 
"  Liberty  candidates  " — Exhausted  enthusiasms. 

BROUGHAM  descended  on  London  from  the  North 
in  1805,  and  supported  himself  by  indefatigable, 
though  shallow,  contributions  to  the  Edinburgh 
Review.  He  came  into  Whig  politics  as  a  pamphleteer, 
notably  during  the  General  Election  of  1807,  when,  with 
slight  assistance  from  Lord  Holland  and  Allen,  he  pro- 
duced a  prodigious  amount  of  what  the  Americans  call 
campaign  literature.  Three  years  later,  on  Lord  Holland's 
suggestion,  the  Duke  of  Bedford  brought  him  into  Parlia- 
ment as  member  for  Camelford.  An  estrangement  from 
Holland  House  followed,  and  Brougham's  correspon- 
dence with  Earl  Grey  supplied  a  reason,  namely,  feminine 

resentment  against  a  rebuff  : 

272 


LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS  273 

"  A  sagacious  friend  of  mine  .  .  .  had  heard,  I  know  not 
how,  that  some  time  ago  the  Hollands  made  an  attempt  to 
call  at  Brougham  on  their  way  South  from  Scotland  ;  that  my 
mother  ordered  the  gate  of  the  courtyard  to  be  barred  against 
their  entrance,  saying  that  she  herself  was  too  old  to  be  hurt 
by  Lady  Holland,  or  anybody  of  that  kind,  but  she  had  an 
unmarried  daughter,  then  living  with  her,  and  therefore  that 
no  Lady  Holland  should  set  foot  in  her  house  !  I  remember 
my  mother  was  immovable,  and  there  was  nothing  to  be 
done  but  that  I  should  go  out  to  the  carriage,  make  any 
excuses  I  could  invent,  and  drive  on  with  the  Hollands  to 
visit  Lord  Thanet,  he  being  then  at  Appleby  Castle — and 
this  I  was  accordingly  compelled  to  do." 

Brougham's  stories  require  confirmation  as  a  rule,  but 
in  this  instance  the  conduct  attributed  to  his  determined 
old  mother  seems  credible.  He  was,  however,  mistaken 
in  attributing  to  Lady  Holland's  animosity  his  three 
years'  exclusion  from  Parliament  after  his  defeat  at 
Liverpool,  with  Creevey  for  a  colleague,  in  1815.  In 
spite  of  such  brilliant  successes  in  the  House  as  the 
repeal  of  the  Orders  in  Council  which  he  wrung  from 
the  Tory  Government,  and  triumphs  at  the  Bar  like  his 
first  defence  of  the  Hunts,  his  extravagances  and  im- 
patience of  control  damaged  his  party,  and  inspired  the 
borough-holders  with  distrust.  Grey,  however,  stood  by 
him,  and  persuaded  Lord  Darlington  to  accept  him  as 
member  for  Winchelsea.  He  promptly  distinguished 
himself  by  a  tirade  against  the  Regent,  described  by 
Romilly  as  composed  in  "  Suetonian  terms  which  would 
not  have  been  too  strong  for  the  latter  days  of  Tiberius," 
and  calculated  according  to  Creevey's  friend  Mr.  Western 
— one  of  the  most  successful  instances  on  record  of  a  man 
living  up  to  his  name  in  literature — to  damn  him  past 
redemption.  Yet  within  a  few  days  he  forced  the 


274  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  to  withdraw  the  unpopular 
income  tax  ;  while  as  chairman  of  the  Select  Committee 
on  the  Education  of  the  Lower  Orders  he  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  Act  of  1870  and  stirred  the  public 
conscience  against  the  misapplication  of  endowments. 
His  labours  stand  to  his  great  honour,  yet  it  is  undeniable 
that  by  adopting  suaver  methods  with  witnesses  and 
Lord  Eldon  he  would  have  materially  expedited  reform. 

Brougham's  championship  of  the  Princess  of  Wales, 
before  she  became  Queen  Caroline,  and  of  Princess 
Charlotte  was,  like  most  of  his  actions,  a  strange  mixture 
of  baseness  and  chivalry.  His  letters  to  Lord  Grey  and 
Creevey  show  that  he  regarded  mother  and  daughter  as 
instruments  ready  to  Whig  hands  after  the  Regent  had 
identified  himself  with  the  Tories.  Nothing  could  be 
more  cynical  than  his  assertion  of  principle  that  "little 
Prinnie "  (Princess  Charlotte)  should  be  taken  along 
with  his  friends  as  far  as  they  both  went  the  same  road, 
and  no  farther.  But  Brougham,  exulting  in  his  own 
prodigality  of  resource,  made  himself  out  more  of  a 
"  Wicked  Shifts,"  as  Creevey  called  him  later  on,  than  he 
really  was.  His  advice  to  the  Princesses  was  kind  and 
judicious,  as  when  he  persuaded  Princess  Charlotte  to 
return  home  after  her  flight  from  Warwick  House,  and 
when  he  vainly  tried  to  dissuade  the  mother  from 
quitting  the  country  in  1814. 

The  conduct  of  Brougham  became  far  more  question- 
able when,  without  consulting  his  client,  he  took  upon 
himself  to  lay  before  the  Ministry  a  proposed  settlement 
of  her  case  on  the  basis  of  an  ample  income  in  return  for 
an  undertaking  never  to  return  to  England  or  to  assume 
the  title  of  Queen.  His  ruling  motive  was  presumably 
unlimited  confidence  in  his  own  dexterity,  but  in  the 


LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS  275 

result  he  was  suspected  by  one  side  of  wishing  to  betray 
his  client  and  by  the  other  of  plotting  to  inveigle  the 
Government  into  concessions  which  could  afterwards 
be  used  against  it.  Brougham,  in  any  case,  entirely 
miscalculated  his  influence  over  the  headstrong  woman 
who,  though  she  appointed  him  her  Attorney-General, 
placed  more  confidence  in  Alderman  Wood,  a  fussy 
busybody,  and  still  more  in  her  resolute  self.  Stung  by 
the  omission  of  her  name  from  the  Liturgy,  she  swept 
her  legal  adviser  aside  when  he  waited  on  her  at  St. 
Omer,  and  made  her  triumphant  entry  into  London  in 
the  congenial  character  of  a  mob  heroine. 

Brougham's  management  of  Queen  Caroline's  case  was 
a  marvel  of  legal  strategy.  There  is  no  reason  for 
disbelieving  his  statement  that  he  began  by  thinking  that 
she  must  be  guilty,  but  as  he  went  on  became  more  and 
more  convinced  of  her  innocence.  The  conscientious 
Denman  underwent  the  same  process  of  conversion. 
With  boundless  audacity,  he  treated  the  House  of  Lords 
as  if  it  were  a  jury  on  the  Northern  Circuit ;  his  sarcasms 
reduced  the  hostile  witnesses,  particularly  Majocchi,  of 
non  mi  ricordo  notoriety,  to  pulp  ;  his  great  speech  was 
a  masterpiece  of  invective,  though  an  unsubstantial 
defence,  and  we  have  it  on  record  that  Denman  con- 
sidered the  peroration  sublime.  It  was  written  out  seven 
times  before  he  was  satisfied  with  its  form  ;  and,  perhaps 
for  that  reason,  it  reads  pompously  in  cold  print.  There 
was  force,  however,  in  his  warning  to  the  Lords  on  the 
consequences  of  passing  the  Bill  of  Pains  and  Penalties  ; 
and  when  it  is  remembered  that  he  might  have  enlisted 
revolutionary  evidence  on  his  client's  side,  he  must  be 
pronounced,  on  the  whole,  to  have  used  his  vast  powers 
with  moderation.  But  though  he  frightened  the  Govern- 


276  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

ment  into  dropping  the  Bill,  he  could  not  convert  the 
Queen  into  a  model  of  propriety,  and  when  she  dis- 
regarded his  advice  and  created  a  disturbance  at  the 
Coronation  she  discovered  that  the  London  mob  had 
wearied  of  her.  Thereafter  she  died. 

During  the   remainder    of  the    reign    of  George  IV. 
Brougham  was  politically  detached ;  his  support  of  the 
Canning   Government    produced    a    temporary    breach 
between   him  and   Earl  Grey,   and  Creevey  speculated 
alternately  on  his  madness  and  his  wickedness.     But  he 
was  prolific   in   schemes  of  popular   education    and   of 
legal   reform,   in   establishing   Mechanics'    Institutes,   in 
founding  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Know- 
ledge,  and  in   setting   up  London  University.    Viewed 
from  a  distance,  he  seemed,  next  to  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, the  greatest  man  of  his  time,  and  when  the  county 
of  Yorkshire  returned  him,  free  of  expense,  at  the  General 
Election  following  the  death  of  George  IV.,  Brougham, 
as  his  latest  biographer,  Mr.  Atlay,  justly  remarks,  was  "a 
potent  force  for  which  there  is  no  parallel  save  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  Gladstone  after  the  successful  issue  of  the 
first  Midlothian  campaign."     But  advancing  years  had 
rendered    him    more   unstable    than  ever.     Lord    Grey 
expressed  the  general  feeling  when  he  tried  to  relegate 
him  to  the   Attorney-Generalship,   though  the  Premier 
misread  his  Brougham  entirely  in  thinking  that  he  would 
put  up   with   a  second-class  position.     He  shouldered, 
instead,   his  way  on  to  the  woolsack  ;  and  though  his 
flippancies  and  sarcasms  in  debate  brought  discredit  on 
the  Government,  his  driving  power  carried  the  Reform 
Bill,   while    his   clearance  of  arrears   in    the    Court    of 
Chancery  was    regarded    as  nothing  short   of   a   legal 
miracle.     It  is  a  pity  that  he  has  obscured  his  services 


LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS  277 

to  the  cause  of  popular  government  by  imaginary  nar- 
ratives of  his  patriotic  prowess  in  the  Royal  closet, 
which  conscientious  historians  have  been  compelled  to 
reject. 

The  passing  of  the  Act  of  Reform  placed  Brougham 
at  the  height  of  his  fame.  His  downfall  followed  with 
catastrophic  rapidity.  He  had  time,  indeed,  to  create 
the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  the  most 
permanently  beneficial  of  his  experiments.  But  his 
levity  in  court  had  become  a  public  scandal,  while  his 
restless  interference  in  every  department  of  State  vexed 
his  colleagues  beyond  endurance.  "  I  suppose  it  must 
be  so,"  said  Lord  Holland  at  Lansdowne  House,  when 
the  determination  was  taken  to  offer  him  the  Seals,  "  but 
this  is  the  last  time  we  shall  meet  in  peace  within  these 
walls."  The  familiar  history  of  his  meddling  in  Irish 
affairs,  and  concealment  of  his  meddling,  which  drove 
Lord  Grey,  the  much-enduring,  to  resign,  his  oratorical 
extravagance  at  the  Edinburgh  banquet,  which  infuriated 
his  Sovereign,  and  finally  his  betrayal  of  the  dismissal 
of  the  Melbourne  Ministry  to  the  Times  with  the 
gratuitous  addition,  "The  Queen  has  done  it  all," 
can  be  passed  over  with  a  bare  allusion.  His  trickery 
and  his  attempt  to  jockey  Scarlett  out  of  the  post  of 
Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer  completed  his  political 
ruin,  and  Lord  Melbourne  pronounced  sentence  with  a 
dignity  that  Brougham  never  approached : 

"You  domineered  too  much,  you  interfered  with  other 
departments,  you  encroached  upon  the  province  of  the  Prime 
Minister,  you  worked,  as  I  believe,  with  the  Press  in  a 
manner  unbecoming  the  dignity  of  your  station,  and  you 
formed  political  views  of  your  own  and  pursued  them  by 
means  which  were  unfair  towards  your  colleagues." 


278  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Brougham  had  made  himself  impossible ;  still,  his  fall 
might  have  been  broken,  and  the  Melbourne  Govern- 
ment brought  disaster  on  themselves  when,  by  leaving 
him  to  learn  of  Lord  Cottenham's  elevation  to  the  wool- 
sack through  the  public  Press,  they  drove  him  into 
unholy  alliance  with  Lord  Lyndhurst.  He  lived  on  to 
be  an  embarrassment  to  whatever  side  of  politics  he 
chose  to  attach  himself,  the  target  of  Harriet  Martineau's 
scathing  journalism  and  the  sport  of  "  H.  B.'s  "  malicious 
pencil. 

The  plain  clue  to  Brougham's  conduct  is  that  he  was 
the  maddest  man  who  has  taken  part  in  the  public  life  of 
this  country.  Close  observers  like  Creevey  and  Greville 
entertained  but  little  doubt  that  the  morbid  activity  of 
his  brain  passed  the  thin  partition  now  and  again.  The 
taint  was  hereditary,  but  by  strength  of  will  and  intense 
application  to  work  he  could  generally  keep  it  under 
control.  Still,  there  were  times  when  he  suffered  from 
deep  melancholy,  others  when  he  took  refuge  in 
boisterous  buffoonery.  He  can  be  forgiven  for  indulging 
in  leapfrog  with  the  little  Ponsonbys,  but  playing  hide- 
and-seek  with  the  Great  Seal  at  Rothiemurchas  passed 
the  bounds.  So  did  his  pleasantries,  if  Greville  is  to  be 
believed  ;  with  Brougham  and  Lord  Sefton  in  vigorous 
vein  it  is  intelligible  that  ladies  did  not  know  which  way 
to  look.  The  eccentricity  of  his  appearance  and  attire 
corresponded  with  the  oddity  of  his  character.  The 
twitching  trumpet-shaped  nose  and  the  dingy  complexion, 
"  looking  like  something  that  had  been  dug  up,"  as 
Lady  Granville  expressed  it,  have  been  immortalised  by 
"  H.  B."  At  one  time  it  pleased  him  to  dress  entirely  in 
black;  later  came  the  plaid  trousers.  He  ate  like  Dr. 
Johnson,  drank  like  Squire  Western,  and  when  at 


LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS  279 

Edinburgh  he  called  his  fellow-citizens  to  witness  that 
after  four  years  of  office  his  hands  were  clean,  there 
were  those  who  asserted  that  they  were  exceedingly 
dirty.  At  one  time  he  was  Lord  Grey's  tenant  in  Berkeley 
Square,  and  he  left  the  house  in  an  indescribable  state 
of  neglect. 

Yet  there  must  have  been  much  that  was  likeable  about 
the  man.  Even  after  he  had  tripped  up  their  father  he 
disarmed  the  hostility  of  the  Greys  ;  though  he  wrecked 
the  first  Melbourne  Ministry,  several  of  his  old  colleagues 
pleaded  for  him  with  the  Premier.  Melbourne  himself 
resumed  habits  of  intimacy,  and  actually  appointed 
Brougham  one  of  his  executors.  In  spite  of  his  impish 
humour  and  rasping  tongue,  he  was  capable  of  enduring 
friendships,  and  in  his  "  Statesmen  of  the  Reign  of 
George  III."  he  raised  no  unworthy  memorial  to  one 
which,  after  the  breach  had  been  once  repaired,  seems  to 
have  stood  time  and  political  change,  namely,  that  with 
the  inhabitants  of  Holland  House.  In  his  old  age  he 
would  often  come  to  spend  an  hour  or  two  in  the 
familiar  rooms,  and  would  sit  sadly  down,  sometimes 
in  tears. 

Denman,  who  as  Queen  Caroline's  Solicitor-General 
was  associated  with  Brougham  in  her  defence,  belonged 
to  the  correct  school  of  lawyers.  While  Brougham,  as  a 
student  at  Edinburgh,  was  wrenching  off  knockers  and 
drinking  deep,  Denman  was  a  blameless  Etonian,  with  a 
love  for  music.  The  contrast  continued  through  their 
respective  lives.  Denman  married  young,  and  became 
the  father  of  fifteen  children.  He  worked  assiduously  at 
his  profession,  instead  of  scattering  his  energies  over  the 
whole  field  of  knowledge.  In  1815  he  received  his  first 
advancement,  through  the  interest  of  Lord  Holland, 


280  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

becoming  Deputy  Recorder  of  Nottingham.  His  defence 
of  the  Luddites,  and  of  Brandreth,  the  "Nottingham 
Captain  "  who  led  a  pitifully  abortive  rising  instigated  by 
sheer  want,  unsuccessful  though  they  were,  marked  him 
out  as  the  Whig  lawyer  likeliest  to  repeat  the  triumphs  of 
Erskine.  The  Duke  of  Devonshire  and  Lord  Lansdowne 
in  1818  brought  him  in  at  their  joint  expense  for  the  close 
borough  of  Wareham,  but,  like  many  another  able  lawyer, 
he  failed  to  impress  the  House  of  Commons. 

His  appointment  as  Solicitor-General  to  Queen  Caroline 
appears  to  have  been  made  at  Brougham's  suggestion. 
To  it  we  owe  his  most  valuable  narrative  of  her  trial, 
composed  in  1821,  of  much  superior  authenticity  to  his 
colleague's  dateless  and  incoherent  recollections.  Den- 
man  enters  into  the  squabbles  that  distracted  the  Queen's 
advisers  and  his  own  uncomfortable  position  between 
Brougham,  on  the  one  hand,  and  Alderman  Wood  on 
the  other.  "  So  now  we  are  in  for  it,  Mr.  Denman,"  was 
her  Attorney-General's  gloomy  observation  after  he  had 
unfolded  the  sinister  reports  that  had  reached  him  as  to 
her  morals.  There  follows  the  curious  confession  that 
Mrs.  Denman  wished  to  call  on  her  in  Portman  Street, 
but  that  he  begged  her  to  wait  until  Mrs.  Brougham  did 
so,  "  dreading  that  such  scenes  of  vice  would  be  proved 
as  would  overwhelm  with  shame  any  woman  who  had 
formed  any  acquaintance  with  the  criminal."  Yet  in  the 
House  he  made  his  memorable  declaration,  in  answer  to 
the  suggestion  that  the  Queen,  though  omitted  from  the 
Liturgy,  might  consider  herself  included  in  the  general 
prayer  for  the  Royal  family,  that  "if  her  Majesty  was 
included  in  any  general  prayer,  it  was  the  prayer  for  all 
that  are  desolate  and  oppressed." 

Whatever  his  feelings  at  the  outset   may  have   been, 


LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS  281 

Denman  soon  worked  himself  up  into  an  ecstatic  belief 
in  his  client's  innocence.  His  speech  was  preferred  by 
many  to  Brougham's  because  it  was  more  dramatic.  The 
apostrophe  to  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  "  Come  forth,  thou 
slanderer  I"  received  all  the  emphasis  that  a  consummate 
actor  could  lend  it.  He  raised  his  voice,  says  his  bio- 
grapher, Sir  Joseph  Arnould,  to  the  full  measure  of  its 
magnificent  compass,  till  the  old  roof  rang  again,  and  a 
thrill  of  irrepressible  emotion  pervaded  every  heart  in  the 
densely  crowded  assembly.  But  the  peroration  contained 
two  astonishing  errors  of  taste.  The  first  was  the  quota- 
tion of  a  foul  passage  from  Dion  Cassius,  suggested  to 
him  by  Dr.  Parr,  which  to  most  people  appeared  to 
impute  to  the  King  the  vilest  vices  of  the  Court  of  Nero. 
The  second  was  the  conclusion  with  a  reference  to  the 
woman  taken  in  adultery — "  Go,  and  sin  no  more."  The 
phrase  came  into  his  head  after  ten  hours'  speaking, 
and  gave  him  some  of  the  bitterest  moments  of  his 
life. 

Those  blunders  earned  for  Denman,  and  naturally, 
the  intense  hostility  of  George  IV.  Lord  Eldon  and 
Lord  Lyndhurst  were  peremptorily  forbidden  to  mention 
his  name  for  promotion  to  silk.  The  latter  had  to  explain 
to  Denman  the  construction  placed  by  the  King  upon  his 
unfortunate  incursion  into  the  classics,  and  the  great 
authority  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  had  to  be  invoked 
before  the  King  granted  his  patent.  "  Mr.  Denman,"  said 
the  Duke,  "  we  have  gained  this  point,  but  I  never  had  a 
tougher  job  in  my  life."  His  many  friends  were  delighted. 
"I  do  indeed  rejoice  most  warmly,"  wrote  Lord  Holland 
from  Brighton,  "at  an  act,  however  tardy,  of  justice  to  you. 
It  comes,  1  fear,  a  little  too  late  to  be  of  much  pecuniary 
advantage  in  your  profession ;  but  the  sincere  satisfaction 


282  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

it  gives  to  so  many,  and  indeed  to  all  honest  men, 
must  afford  you  a  gratification  of  a  higher  order." 

Denman  spent  his  leisure  during  the  Queen's  trial  at 
Holland  House,  where  he  "  luxuriated  in  an  admirable 
library  and  the  best  company  in  the  world,  at  the  same 
time  recruiting  his  health  in  good  air  and  delicious 
gardens."  He  generally  occupied  Mr.  Fox's  chamber 
and  was  "as  happy  as  a  man  could  be."  His  friends 
belonged  mainly  to  that  circle,  and  included  Mackintosh, 
Sydney  Smith,  Rogers,  Moore,  and  Thomas  Campbell. 
To  the  last  of  them  he  sent  a  rhymed  reply,  when  invited 
to  dinner,  more  remarkable  for  Whiggism  than  wit.  Den- 
man's  political  opinions,  in  fact,  continued  to  be  of  the 
advanced  order.  After  some  years'  absence  from  Parlia- 
ment, he  made  a  timely  re-entry  as  member  for  Notting- 
ham at  the  General  Election  consequent  on  the  death  of 
George  IV.,  when  he  harangued  the  multitude  from  the 
window  of  the  Corn  Exchange  and  attended  a  meeting  of 
the  "  Lambs,"  where  he  sucked  a  long  clay  pipe  and  sang 
a  comic  song.  On  the  formation  of  the  Grey  Ministry 
he  became  Attorney-General,  and  braved  odium  by  con- 
ducting the  prosecutions  against  the  agrarian  and  Bristol 
rioters.  But  the  "  Mumpsimus  "  party,  Lord  Eldon  and 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  were  sorely  exercised  when, 
two  years  later,  this  strong  politician,  who  had  branded 
his  present  Sovereign  as  a  "slanderer,"  was  appointed 
Lord  Chief  Justice  in  succession  to  Lord  Tenterden. 

Absorbed  in  circuit  and  legal  reform,  Denman  does 
not  seem  to  have  seen  much  of  his  old  friends  until  May, 
1838,  when  he  met  Lord  Grey  and  Lord  Holland  at  Lord 
Clarendon's  house. 

"  Lord  Grey  not  in  absolute  good-humour  with   his  old 


LAWYERS  AND  RADICALS  283 

friends ;  a  little  sore  on  a  good  many  points.  .  .  .  The 
general  asperities  not  softened  by  his  being  seated  next 
to  Lady  Clarendon,  who  required  him  to  carve  all  the 
dishes,  especially  a  roast  pig !  Lord  Holland  more  amiable, 
good-humoured,  and  entertaining  than  I  ever  saw  even  him 
before — quite  aware  of  Lord  Grey's  infirmity,  but  only 
amused  by  it.  Both  deep  in  Wilberforce's  biography,  and 
agreed  that  it  raised  him  in  their  estimation.  Holland  said 
in  addition  (but  with  some  nervousness  as  to  how  it  would 
be  received)  that  the  work  also  raised  Pitt  in  his  opinion. 
This  was  controverted,  but  not  ungracefully.  .  .  .  Grey  said 
he  could  not  read  'Pickwick.'  Holland  spoke  of  it  with 
discriminating  discernment,  but  mentioned  Boz's  other 
book,  'Oliver  Twist,'  almost  with  tears.  When  Grey 
offered  to  help  him  to  pig,  he  declined  hastily,  and  gave 
me  the  most  comical  look,  as  though  he  should  have  come 
between  the  lion  and  his  wrath." 

A  new  generation  had  occupied  Holland  House  for 
many  years  before  Lord  Denman  laid  aside  the  ermine, 
to  end  his  days  a  paralytic  unable  to  communicate  with 
others  either  by  tongue  or  pen. 

Plunket,  the  Irish  orator,  was  reckoned  as  a  follower  of 
Lord  Grenville,  who  brought  him  in  for  Midhurst  just 
before  the  dissolution  of  1807.  He  was  essentially  the 
political  pupil  of  Grattan,  whose  efforts  to  defeat  the 
Act  of  Union  he  had  ably  seconded  in  the  Parliament 
House  on  St.  Stephen's  Green,  and  to  whom  he  paid 
filial  attention  both  in  public  and  private.  Though  he 
made  a  name  and  fortune  in  the  Dublin  Court  of 
Chancery,  it  was  not  until  1813  that  he  rose  to  fame 
in  England,  when,  having  been  returned  member  for 
Dublin  University,  he  made  the  first  of  his  great  speeches 
on  behalf  of  Catholic  Emancipation.  Its  effect,  we  are 
told,  was  very  great.  Brougham  has  left  it  on  record 


284  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

that  Plunket  lacked  only  one  requisite  of  a  perfect 
orator — the  power  of  combining  and  clothing  rapid, 
overwhelming  declamation  with  argument ;  and  that  he 
surpassed  all  orators  in  that  there  was  no  interval  what- 
ever in  his  speech,  the  whole  being  an  exemplification  of 
clear  statement,  close  reasoning,  and  felicitous  illustration. 
The  breach  between  the  Grenvilles  and  the  Whigs,  how- 
ever, caused  Plunket  to  lend  his  voice  to  Tory  measures 
like  the  Seditious  Meetings  Bill,  and  Lord  Grey  is  sup- 
posed to  have  aimed  at  him  the  bitter  reproach  that  "  he 
had  acted  with  more  than  the  zeal  of  an  apostate."  In 
1821  he  rehabilitated  himself  in  Whig  eyes  by  his  second 
great  speech  on  Catholic  Relief,  the  speech  which  Mac- 
kintosh declared  to  be  the  ablest  he  had  ever  heard  in 
Parliament,  and  which  was  followed  by  the  adoption  of 
his  resolution  by  a  majority  of  six  in  a  House  of  four 
hundred  and  forty-eight.  This  Bill,  managed  by  Sir 
John  Newport  in  its  later  stages,  passed  the  Commons, 
but  was  rejected  on  its  second  reading  by  the  Lords. 

The  Catholics  had  to  wait  for  seven  years  longer,  and 
in  the  meantime  Plunket  accepted  the  appointment  of 
Irish  Attorney-General  in  Lord  Liverpool's  Ministry,  that 
pliant  statesman  having  admitted  the  principle  as  an 
"  open  question."  He  acted  in  close  alliance  with  the 
Lord-Lieutenant,  the  Marquis  Wellesley,  who  was  also  an 
Emancipationalist,  while  Goulburn,  the  Irish  Secretary, 
represented  the  opposite  pole  of  political  thought.  While 
Attorney-General,  Plunket,  in  a  brilliant  flight  of  sustained 
eloquence,  supported  Burdett's  Relief  Bill,  which  passed 
its  second  reading  by  a  majority  of  twenty-one,  only  to 
be  thrown  out  by  the  Lords  through  the  conscientious 
bigotry  of  the  Duke  of  York.  Plunket  during  these  years 
was  much  in  the  confidence  of  Canning,  who,  in  1827, 


LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS  285 

made  him  Chief-Justice  in  the  Irish  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  with  a  peerage.  The  House  of  Lords,  therefore, 
was  the  audience  which  was  privileged  to  hear  his  last 
speech  on  Emancipation,  the  crown  of  his  political  career. 
It  remained  for  him  to  receive  a  tardy  reward  for  his 
services  from  Lord  Grey  in  the  shape  of  the  Irish 
Chancellorship,  and  to  place  his  wisdom  and  experience 
at  the  disposal  of  three  successive  Viceroys — Lords  Angle- 
sea,  Wellesley,  and  Mulgrave — during  ten  critical  years. 
In  return  he  was  jockeyed  out  of  office  in  1841  to  make 
room  for  a  more  pushing  politician  in  Sir  John  Campbell 
by  what  Brougham,  an  expert  in  such  matters,  regarded 
as  "  the  most  gross  and  unjustifiable  act  ever  done  by 
party,  combining  violence  and  ingratitude  with  fraud." 
He  lived  on  to  1854,  and  died  in  his  ninetieth  year. 

"  There  has  been  nothing  like  it  since  Plunket "  was  in 
the  "forties"  and  "fifties"  the  hall-mark  of  a  political 
speech.  The  standard  was  a  high  one,  though  the  age  of 
Plunket,  Brougham,  and  Canning  must  be  pronounced 
the  silver  age  of  English  eloquence  ;  that  of  Pitt,  Fox, 
Burke,  Sheridan,  and  Windham  the  golden.  A  perusal 
of  Plunket's  speeches  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  their 
strength  consisted  in  their  aptitude  to  debate  rather  than 
their  grasp  of  political  philosophy.  As  to  his  other 
attributes,  Bulwer  Lytton  wrote  in  Blackwood's  Magazine 
that  with— 

"No  grace  in  feature,  no  command  in  height, 
Yet  his  whole  presence  fills  and  awes  the  sight. 
Wherefore?  you  ask.     I  can  but  guide  your  guess — 
Man  has  no  majesty  like  earnestness." 

Plunket  was  a  man  of  long  and  enduring  friendships, 
chiefly  Irish,  though  he  was  always  welcome  both  at 


286  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Dropmore  and  Holland  House.  Among  the  famous  men 
whom  he  entertained  at  Old  Connaught,  his  country 
home,  was  Sir  Walter  Scott.  Moore,  meeting  Plunket 
at  Holland  House  in  1832,  was  pleased  to  disparage 
his  strongly  Irish  manner,  sounding  Dublin  all  over. 
Pretty  cool  that  for  the  son  of  a  Dublin  tradesman  ! 
Plunket,  apart  from  his  manner,  was  an  inveterate 
punster  in  and  out  of  court.  When  some  one  praised 
his  waterfall  at  Old  Connaught  as  quite  a  cataract,  he 

replied,  "  Oh,  that's  all  my  eye  ! "     "Well,  you  see 's 

predictions  have  come  true."  "  Indeed,"  said  Plunket, 
"  I  always  knew  he  was  a  bore,  but  I  didn't  know  he  was 
an  augur."  Brougham  has  handed  down  a  prettier  instance 
of  his  wit.  Lord  Essex  said  one  day  that  he  had  seen  a 
brother  of  Sir  John  Leach  so  like  the  Master  of  the  Rolls 
that  it  seemed  as  if  the  manner  ran  in  the  family.  "  I 
should  as  soon  have  thought,"  exclaimed  Plunket,  "  of  a 
wooden  leg  running  in  a  family." 

John  Wishaw  was  a  connecting  link  between  the  Whig 
politicians  of  the  Regency  and  the  reign  of  George  IV., 
and  may  therefore  be  included  in  this  chapter.  He  held 
a  good  position  as  an  equity  barrister  when,  in  1806,  his 
Whig  friends  gave  him  the  comfortable  appointment  of 
Commissioner  at  the  Audit  Office.  Thus  provided  for, 
Wishaw  spent  his  tranquil  existence  as  a  confidant  of 
public  men,  whose  advice  carried  all  the  greater  weight 
because  he  was  cautious  about  giving  it.  Sydney  Smith 
sought  his  acquaintance,  when  he  set  up  house  in 
Doughty  Street,  as  one  of  the  well-to-do  barristers  of 
the  neighbourhood.  When  Horner  came  to  town, 
Abercromby,  afterwards  Speaker  and  Lord  Dunferm- 
line,  recommended  him  to  cultivate  Wishaw  as  a  "  very 
particular  friend  of  mine  whom  I  hold  a  most  excellent 


LORD   DEN MAN 

FROM    THE   PAINTING    BY   JOHN   JAMES    HALI.S   IN    THE    NATIONAL    PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS  287 

critic  and  accurate  in  his  opinions  of  character."  Romilly, 
who  was  a  still  earlier  friend,  made  Wishaw  his  executor, 
and  entrusted  him  with  the  care  of  his  children,  a  duty 
performed  with  exemplary  care.  When  Brougham  was 
appointed  in  1806  Secretary  to  Lord  St.  Vincent's  mission 
to  the  Court  of  Lisbon,  Wishaw  offered  to  lend  him  any 
reasonable  sum  to  meet  the  emergency,  and  Brougham 
never  forgot  the  kindness.  His  hand  was  frequently 
suspected  in  the  pages  of  the  Edinburgh  Review ;  but,  in 
reality,  his  literary  performances  appear  to  have  been 
confined  to  biographical  memoirs  of  Mungo  Park  the 
explorer  and  Smithson  Tennant  the  mineralogist. 

How,  then,  did  Wishaw  acquire  his  reputation  for 
wisdom  ?  By  the  process,  it  would  seem,  of  making 
up  his  mind  with  deliberation  and  holding  to  it  with 
tenacity.  Sydney  Smith  once  wrote  that  when  a  new 
book  came  out  Wishaw  gave  no  opinion  for  the  first 
week,  but  confined  himself  to  chuckling  and  elevating 
his  chin.  "In]  the  meantime  he  drives  diligently  about 
the  first  critical  stations,  breakfasts  in  Mark  Lane  [with 
"Conversation"  Sharp], hears  from  Hertford  College  [from 
Mackintosh],  and  by  Saturday  night  is  as  bold  as  a  lion 
and  as  decisive  as  a  court  of  justice."  His  confidence  in 
his  own  views  won  for  him  the  nicknames  of "  the  Pope  " 
and  "  the  Mufti "  ;  and  Lady  Seymour,  who  has  edited 
his  correspondence,  has  borrowed  from  Creevey  the  apt 
title  of  "The  Pope  of  Holland  House."  His  letters 
exhibit  Wishaw  as  moderate  rather  than  profound, 
singularly  unruffled  by  tremendous  events  like  the  fall 
of  Napoleon,  the  trial  of  Queen  Caroline,  or  the  carrying 
of  the  Reform  Bill,  but  liable  to  err  in  his  literary  judg- 
ments. Thus  he  condemned  Benjamin  Constant's 
"  Adolphe,"  the  object  of  Balzac's  unstinted  admiration, 


288  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

as  an  absolute  failure.  His  description  of  Bentham  as 
"  a  schoolman,  born  some  ages  too  late,"  is,  however,  by 
no  means  destitute  of  point.  Wishaw,  with  his  cork  leg 
and  blunt  manners — "a  puffy,  thick-set,  vulgar  little 
dump  of  an  old  man"  is  Carlyle's  uncomplimentary 
description  of  him — spent  his  old  age  serenely,  afflicted 
by  decayed  eyesight,  but  surrounded  by  devoted  friends. 
The  news  of  Lord  Holland's  death,  abruptly  broken  to 
him  by  Sydney  Smith,  is  said  to  have  given  him  a 
paralytic  stroke,  and  two  months  later  he  passed  away. 
Between  the  Whigs  and  the  Radicals  there  was  a  great 
gulf  fixed.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  Home  Tooke  or 
Major  Cartwright  as  visitors  at  Holland  House.  Still, 
members  of  that  party  did  cross  the  threshold,  and 
among  them  were  John  Cam  Hobhouse  and  Sir  Francis 
Burdett.  The  former  is  best  recollected  as  Byron's  com- 
panion on  the  memorable  tour  immortalised  in  the  first 
canto  of  "  Childe  Harold,"  and  to  him  the  fourth  canto 
is  dedicated  as  to  one  whom  its  author — 


"  had  known  long,  accompanied  far  ;  whom  he  had  found 
wakeful  over  his  sickness  and  kind  in  his  sorrow  ;  glad  in  his 
prosperity  and  firm  in  his  adversity ;  true  in  counsel,  and 
trusty  in  peril ;  a  friend  often  tried  and  never  found  want- 
ing ;  a  man  of  learning,  of  talent,  of  shrewdness  and  of 
honour." 


The  notes  contributed  by  Hobhouse  to  the  canto  are  the 
product  of  a  scholarly  and  tasteful  intelligence.  When 
they  parted  at  Pisa  for  the  last  time  in  September,  1822, 
Byron  eloquently  said  :  "  Hobhouse,  you  should  never 
have  come,  or  you  should  never  go."  He  had  behaved 
with  great  tact  and  loyalty  during  the  poet's  domestic 


LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS  289 

difficulties,  and  when  Byron  died  he  wrote  "a  full  and 
scrupulously  accurate  account "  of  the  separation.  Lord 
Holland,  a  friend  of  some  sixteen  years'  standing,  strongly 
recommended  silence.  Lady  Byron,  he  declared,  would 
be  far  more  annoyed  if  left  unnoticed  than  if,  whether 
wrong  or  right,  she  had  to  figure  in  a  controversy.  Hob- 
house,  whose  simple  desire  was  to  do  duty  by  the  dead, 
deferred  to  this  opinion,  and  the  manuscript  remains 
unpublished. 

Hobhouse's  robust  Radicalism  caused  him  to  be 
elected  in  1820  the  companion  of  Sir  Francis  Burdett 
in  the  representation  of  Westminster,  after  he  had  been 
defeated  two  years  previously  by  George  Lamb,  the 
Whig  candidate,  owing  to  party  dissensions.  The  pair  con- 
tinued to  represent  the  borough  until  after  the  Reform 
Bill  had  become  law,  and  in  many  ways  they  were  well 
fitted  to  give  voice  to  middle-class  aspirations.  The 
exertions  of  a  committee  of  Westminster  tradesmen — 
Brooke,  the  glass  manufacturer  in  the  Strand,  Adams, 
the  coach-builder  in  Long  Acre,  and  Place,  the  tailor  at 
Charing  Cross — had  placed  Burdett  at  the  head  of  the 
poll  in  1807,  with  Lord  Cochrane,  afterwards  Earl  of 
Dundonald,  as  a  Whig  colleague  with  a  grievance  against 
the  Government.  Canning  and  Tierney  ranked  Burdett 
very  nearly,  if  not  quite,  at  the  head  of  the  parliamentary 
orators  of  their  day.  He  was  tall  and  gifted  with  a 
melodious  voice  ;  his  command  of  language  was  easy 
and  natural,  and  he  never  used  a  note.  Hobhouse  wrote 
of  him  that  in  private  life  "  a  manly  understanding  and  a 
tender  heart  gave  a  charm  to  his  society  such  as  I  have 
never  derived  in  any  other  instance  from  a  man  whose 
principal  pursuit  was  politics." 

Sir  Francis  had  also  a  spice  of  the  mountebank  in  him 
u 


290  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

which  was  much  to  the  taste  of  the  uneducated  West- 
minster mob.  When  the  House  committed  him  to  the 
Tower  for  breach  of  privilege,  his  offence  consisting  of 
the  republication  of  a  speech  in  defence  of  a  brother 
demagogue,  John  Gale  Jones,  he  barricaded  himself  in 
his  house  in  Piccadilly,  with  Cochrane  as  a  hare-brained 
chief-of-the-staff.  The  troops  brought  the  siege  to  a 
close  by  effecting  a  breach  on  the  fourth  morning,  and 
ruined  a  hastily  arranged  scene  in  which  Burdett  was 
teaching  his  son  to  translate  Magna  Charta.  Imprison- 
ment being  a  valuable  qualification  for  Radicalism  in 
those  days,  Burdett  was  thenceforth  safe  for  Westminster, 
though  an  official  Whig  like  Romilly  or  George  Lamb 
occasionally  contrived  to  share  the  representation.  As 
for  Hobhouse,  he  was  a  more  pertinacious  debater  than 
Burdett,  whom  wealth — for  he  had  married  a  Miss  Coutts 
— made  lazy,  and  who  was  apt  to  weary  of  dividing  in 
hopeless  minorities.  He,  too,  contrived  to  get  into 
prison,  since  he  was  committed  to  Newgate  in  1819  for  a 
pamphlet,  entitled  "  A  Trifling  Mistake."  Mr.  Graham 
Wallas,  in  his  "Life  of  Francis  Place," produces  evidence 
however,  to  the  effect  that  the  most  violent  passage, 
which  it  is  difficult  to  construe  otherwise  than  as  an 
appeal  to  force,  was  written,  not  by  Hobhouse,  but  by 
that  pragmatic  tailor. 

If  Westminster  had  never  carried  its  "  Liberty  candi- 
dates "  at  election  after  election,  and  if  Place  had  not 
been  behind  Burdett  and  Hobhouse  to  stiffen  their 
flagging  energies,  the  Whigs  might  have  delayed  a 
generation  or  two  before  they  embraced  Parliamentary 
Reform.  Even  when  the  Grey  Administration  was 
formed  no  room  was  made  in  it  for  the  two  members 
for  Westminster,  though  a  curious  passage  in  Hobhouse's 


LAWYERS  AND   RADICALS  291 

"  Recollections  of  a  Long  Life  "  implies  that  their  claims 
were  considered.  However,  they  played  vigorous  parts 
in  the  first  Reform  campaign  both  inside  the  House  and 
out  of  doors.  The  Bill  once  carried,  Burdett  rested  and 
was  thankful.  Westminster  grew  tired  of  him,  and  the 
beginning  of  Queen  Victoria's  reign  found  him  a  sup- 
porter of  the  Conservative  Opposition.  He  could  boast 
in  all  sincerity  that  he  had  never  been  a  Whig.  That 
fate  was  reserved  for  Hobhouse,  who,  appointed  Secretary 
at  War  in  1832,  held  various  offices  without  much  dis- 
tinction, and  became,  in  the  eyes  of  an  indignant  Radical 
like  Place,  "live  lumber."  When,  in  1852,  he  finally 
retired,  he  had  become  one  of  the  most  Conservative 
members  of  Lord  John  Russell's  Cabinet,  and,  as  Lord 
Broughton  de  Gyfford,  had  departed  from  the  democratic 
ideas  he  had  advocated  when  "  Burdett  and  Hobhouse 
for  Westminster"  was  the  cry. 


CHAPTER   XXI 
TORIES  AT   HOLLAND   HOUSE 

Wilberforce  and  Lord  Eldon — Lord  Stowell — A  great  character 
— Stowell's  penurious  habits — As  Judge  of  the  Admiralty  Court — 
Lord  Aberdeen — His  relations  with  Pitt  and  Dundas — "Athenian 
Aberdeen" — His  varied  attainments — As  envoy  abroad — Aberdeen 
and  Greece — His  domestic  afflictions. 

TORY  politicians  of  the  orthodox  kind  were  scarce 
birds  at  Holland  House.  Wilberforce  found 
himself  there  in  1819,  and  described  Lord 
Holland  in  his  diary  "as  truly  fascinating,  having  some- 
thing of  his  uncle's  good-humour."  A  more  unexpected 
guest  still  was  Lord  Eldon,  who  owned  to  surprised 
amusement  at  his  surroundings.  He  dined  at  Holland 
House  in  1822  and  reported  to  his  daughter,  Lady 
Frances  Bankes,  that  he  had  met  Lord  Grey,  Lord 
Lauderdale,  and  several  of  the  Opposition  ;  had  enjoyed 
a  good  and  pleasant  party,  and  had  never  seen  a  house 
that  he  thought  better  worth  seeing. 

Lord  Eldon's  brother,  Lord  Stowell,  though  a  Tory  in 
politics,  moved  freely  in  Whig  circles.  He  is  the  Sir 
W.  Scott  whom  Moore  frequently  mentions  in  his 
journal  as  dining  at  Holland  House  and  other  Opposition 

resorts.     He  also  kept  up  a  correspondence,  character- 

292 


TORIES  AT    HOLLAND   HOUSE  293 

ised  on  his  side  by  courtly  archness,  with  a  great  Whig 
lady,  the  Duchess  of  Somerset.  "  He  was  one  of  the 
pleasantest  men  I  ever  knew,"  wrote  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
when  he  met  Lord  Stowell  in  1828,  frail  and  even 
comatose.  But  then  the  son  of  the  Newcastle  publican 
and  coal-shipper  had  moved  in  the  best  society  of  his 
time.  At  Oxford  he  formed  an  intimate  friendship  with 
Dr.  Johnson,  who  made  him  one  of  his  executors,  and 
about  whom  he  supplied  much  personal  information  to 
Croker  for  his  unduly  maligned  edition  of  Boswell.  He 
was  equally  at  home  with  the  learned  and  the  frivolous, 
and  could  carry  his  two  bottles  of  port  discreetly.  "  My 
brother,"  said  Lord  Eldon,  who  was  much  attached  to 
him,  "  will  drink  any  given  quantity  of  wine,"  the  allu- 
sion being  to  Lord  Stowell's  penurious  habits.  He  also 
liked  strong  meats,  and  Canning  once  detected  him 
driving  down  to  his  country  house  with  a  turtle  in  the 
carriage.  "Was  it  not  your  son  who  was  with  you  the 
other  day  ? "  innocently  inquired  Canning  when  they 
next  met.  Beef-steak  pie  with  layers  of  oysters  was  his 
favourite  dish. 

Altogether  Lord  Stowell  was  a  great  character,  slovenly 
in  his  dress,  dirty  as  to  his  hands,  but  polished  in  his 
manners.  By  no  means  an  ideal  husband  for  a  dowager 
Marchioness,  his  second  marriage  with  Lady  Sligo,  whose 
acquaintance  he  made  through  trying  her  son  for  en- 
ticing two  seamen  from  the  Royal  Navy  on  to  his  yacht, 
proved  inharmonious.  He  was  grasping ;  she  open- 
handed.  He  could  seldom  be  induced  to  dine  at  home 
or  to  keep  reasonable  hours  ;  she  disliked  dining  out. 
The  ill-assorted  union,  which  Lady  Sligo's  death  ended 
in  little  more  than  four  years,  occasioned  one  of  the 
most  searching  of  Jekyll's  puns.  When  Sir  William 


294  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

Scott,  as  he  then  was,  removed  from  Doctors'  Commons 
to  his  wife's  house  in  Grafton  Street,  he  brought  with  him, 
in  his  frugal  way,  his  own  door-plate,  and  placed  it  under 
hers.  Jekyll  condoled  with  him  on  having  to  "  knock 
under."  Sir  William  promptly  ordered  the  plates  to  be 
transposed.  A  few  days  later  he  said  to  Jekyll, "  You  see, 
I  don't '  knock  under'  now."  "  Not  now,"  was  the  answer 
received  by  the  antiquated  bridegroom,  "  now  you  '  knock 
up.'  "  His  parsimony  extended  even  to  his  sight-seeing. 
He  visited  every  show  in  London  which  could  be 
entered  for  a  shilling  or  less ;  and  was  once  admitted  free 
because  the  money-taker,  an  honest  North-country  lad, 
confessed  to  him  that  the  "green  monster  serpent"  of 
the  invitation  cards  was  the  old  serpent  which  he  had 
seen  six  times  before  in  other  colours. 

As  a  politician  Sir  William  Scott  suffered  from  the 
same  weakness  as  his  brother  :  he  "  doubted."  Though 
he  represented  Oxford  University  for  twenty  years,  he 
did  little  more  than  obstruct  Romilly's  legal  reforms. 
The  clergy,  however,  regarded  him  as  a  safe  representa- 
tive of  their  interests,  and  his  Residence  Bill  abolished  a 
crying  ecclesiastical  scandal,  none  too  soon.  As  Judge 
of  the  Admiralty  Court  he  acquired  a  unique  reputation. 
He  found  maritime  law  in  a  state  of  uncertainty  and 
with  no  published  records;  he  left  it  clear  and  consis- 
tent. Brougham,  in  his  "Statesmen  of  the  Time  of 
George  III.,"  warmly  praises  the  learning,  graces,  and 
reasoning  powers  which  Lord  Stowell  brought  to  the 
Bench.  "  If  ever  the  praise  of  being  luminous  could  be 
bestowed  on  human  composition,"  he  adds,  "  it  was  upon 
his  judgments,  and  it  was  the  approbation  constantly,  and 
as  it  were  peculiarly,  appropriated  by  those  wonderful 
exhibitions  of  judicial  capacity." 


TORIES  AT   HOLLAND   HOUSE  295 

Another  steady  Tory  who  frequented  Holland  House 
was  Lord  Aberdeen,  the  future  Prime  Minister — a  Tory, 
perhaps,  rather  by  upbringing  than  inclination.  When 
a  boy  at  Harrow  he  escaped  from  the  neglectful  guardian- 
ship of  a  harsh  old  grandfather  by  availing  himself  of 
the  Scotch  law  and  appointing  Dundas  and  Pitt  as  his 
curators,  living  alternately  with  both.  He  was  thus 
educated  in  the  centre  of  the  Tory  party ;  and,  being  by 
nature  diffident,  he  submitted  during  his  early  manhood 
to  the  political  tutelage  of  politicians  so  circumscribed 
as  Lord  Liverpool  and  Lord  Bathurst,  the  latter  a  typical 
product  of  the  "  pigtail "  school.  Lord  Stanmore's 
admirable  little  biography  of  his  father  throws  a  pleasant 
light  on  his  relationship  with  Pitt.  The  intercession  of 
the  curators  wrung  from  old  Lord  Aberdeen  consent 
to  his  grandson's  matriculation  at  St.  John's  College, 
Cambridge,  Pitt  tersely  informing  him  that  he  "did  not 
concur  with  his  lordship  in  considering  that  rank  super- 
seded the  necessity  for  education."  Even  after  his 
marriage  with  Lady  Catherine  Hamilton  the  young  peer 
lived  in  Dundas's  villa  at  Wimbledon,  hard  by  Pitt's 
residence  at  Bowling  Green  House,  Putney,  and  he  was 
one  of  the  first  to  receive  the  news  of  the  Prime  Minister's 
death.  "I  have  lost,"  he  wrote,  "the  only  friend  to 
whom  I  looked  up  with  unbounded  hope  and  devotion." 

By  1806  Lord  Aberdeen  had  grown  into  a  studious, 
cultivated,  and  modest  young  man.  At  Harrow  he  became 
a  sound  Greek  scholar,  and  had  read  the  Italian  poets  and 
modern  history.  Cambridge  made  him,  in  addition,  an 
accomplished  Latinist  and  a  follower  of  the  by-paths  of 
literature,  especially  that  of  the  Renaissance.  How  many 
undergraduates  of  the  present  day,  asks  Lord  Stanmore, 
have  read  or  heard  of  Vida,  the  fifteenth-century  author 


296  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

of  the  "  Christiad  "  ?  Lord  Aberdeen  knew  his  works, 
and  those  of  Sannazarius  and  Frascatorius.  But  it 
was  as  "the  travelled  thane,  Athenian  Aberdeen,"  that 
he  appeared  in  "  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers " 
as  "  first  of  the  oat-fed  phalanx."  The  title  was  earned 
him  by  two  years'  journeyings  in  the  Levant,  during 
which  he  excavated  the  Pnyx,  or  ancient  meeting-place, 
at  Athens,  and  visited  sites,  then  almost  unknown,  of  dead 
cities  in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor.  Lord  Stanmore  in- 
forms us  that  he  made  careful  copies  of  inscriptions 
which  have  since  disappeared.  His  criticism  of  Gell's 
"Topography  of  Troy"  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and 
still  more  his  "  Inquiry  into  the  Principles  of  Beauty  in 
Grecian  Architecture,"  originally  written  as  a  preface  to 
an  edition  of  Vitruvius,  prove  him  to  have  been  a  dis- 
cerning antiquary,  though  modern  research  has  rendered 
obsolete  many  of  his  conclusions. 

Lady  Granville,  on  meeting  Lord  Aberdeen  in  1813, 
wrote  to  her  sister,  Lady  Morpeth,  "  I  acknowledge  he 
looks  beautiful,  and  there  is  something  in  the  quiet 
enthusiasm  of  his  manner  and  the  total  absence  of 
frivolity  in  his  mind  and  tastes  as  uncommon  as  it  is 
captivating."  The  cast  of  his  features  in  later  life  was 
one  of  dignified  sternness  rather  than  of  beauty.  But 
Lady  Granville  was  right  in  pointing  out  a  seriousness 
of  taste  as  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  Lord  Aber- 
deen. As  a  connoisseur  of  art  and  antiquary  his  voice 
carried  weight  with  his  fellow-trustees  of  the  National 
Gallery  and  British  Museum.  By  extensive  planting  he 
converted  his  estate  at  Haddo,  which  he  began  by  dis- 
liking, from  a  barren  wilderness  to  a  well-wooded 
domain,  and  the  visit  of  a  botanical  friend  revealed 
him  as  learned  in  plants  and  mosses.  "  Nothing,"  writes 


TORIES  AT   HOLLAND   HOUSE  297 

his  son,  "  could  be  more  curious  than  the  way  in  which 
colleagues  and  friends,  whenever  at  a  loss,  came  to  him 
for  information  on  the  most  varied  topics,  and  rarely 
came  in  vain.  But  while  ever  ready,  without  any 
apparent  disinclination,  to  communicate  to  others  the 
knowledge  he  possessed,  his  habitual  attitude  was  one 
of  reticence."  A  memory  stored  with  art  and  history 
caused  him  to  be  welcome  both  at  Holland  House  and 
Bowood  ;  while  at  Stanmore  Priory,  the  home  of  his 
father-in-law,  the  Marquis  of  Abercorn,  the  Sheridans, 
Sir  Walter  Scott,  Lawrence,  Kemble,  and  Payne  Knight 
were  familiar  guests. 

Lord  Aberdeen  carried  his  stock  of  quiet  enthusiasm 
into  public  life.  Despatched  to  Vienna  in  the  spring  of 
1813,  a  moment  of  supreme  importance,  he  succeeded  in 
gaining  the  complete  confidence  of  the  Austrian  Emperor 
and  Metternich,  no  less  than  of  the  Russian  Minister, 
Nesselrode ;  and  when  the  Allies  reached  the  Rhine  his 
influence  as  representative  of  England  prevented  mutual 
jealousies  from  blazing  forth.  Thus  he  was  duly  ap- 
pointed the  chief  British  negotiator  at  the  Congress  of 
Chatillon,  when  Napoleon,  if  he  had  not  been  too 
exorbitant  in  his  demands,  might  have  preserved  his 
Empire ;  and  when  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons 
had  been  decided,  he  put  his  hand  to  the  general  treaty 
of  peace.  But  he  wisely  observed  that  Louis  XVII.  had 
no  root  and  might  be  upset  at  any  time,  though  the 
leverage  did  not  prove  to  be,  as  he  anticipated,  that  of  a 
republic.  Later  on,  he  allowed  himself  to  be  dissuaded 
by  his  Tory  friends  from  advocating  the  cause  of  Hellenic 
independence  at  public  meetings.  But  he  was  a  true 
friend  to  the  Greeks,  and  after  he  had  declined  a  seat  in 
Canning's  Cabinet,  it  fell  to  him,  as  Foreign  Secretary  in 


298  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

the  Duke  of  Wellington's  Administration,  to  deal  with 
their  case  as  complicated  by  the  hostilities  begun  by 
Russia  against  the  Porte. 

Aberdeen  has  been  accused  of  crippling  the  re- 
sources of  the  new  kingdom  and  limiting  its  extent. 
But,  in  the  first  place,  he  had  to  reckon  with  colleagues 
who  were  strongly  pro-Turkish  ;  and,  in  the  second,  the 
campaign  had  disclosed  such  military  weakness  in  the 
Ottoman  Empire  that  a  big  Greece  was  likely  to  become 
a  Russian  satrapy.  Lord  Aberdeen  instinctively  played 
for  safety,  both  when  he  averted  the  disintegration  of 
the  Porte  and  when  he  declined  to  intermeddle  in  the 
internal  affairs  of  Portugal.  His  caution  brought  him 
into  sharp  collision  with  his  Whig  friends,  and  particu- 
larly with  Lord  Holland,  but  he  maintained  that  a  showy 
policy  was  not  necessarily  a  sound  one.  Before  he  went 
out  of  office  he  recognised  Louis  Philippe  as  King  of  the 
French,  and  so  paved  the  way  for  the  excellent  under- 
standing between  the  two  Courts  that  prevailed  when  he 
became  Foreign  Secretary  for  the  second  time. 

Here  we  must  take  leave  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  with  the 
parting  remark  that  he  was  the  most  misunderstood 
and  most  undervalued  statesman  in  nineteenth-century 
politics.  His  domestic  afflictions  helped  to  obscure 
his  talents.  For  the  loss  of  his  first  wife,  whom  he 
worshipped,  he  found  consolation  in  a  second,  the 
widow  of  his  brother-in-law,  Lord  Hamilton,  though 
it  may  be  inferred  from  Lord  Stanmore's  book  that  the 
marriage  was  rather  a  matter  of  arrangement  by  others 
than  of  his  own  choice.  But  he  became  a  sad  and 
lonely  man  after  his  first  family,  girls  of  remarkable 
beauty,  died  in  rapid  succession  ;  and  after  the  second 
Lady  Aberdeen,  too,  died  in  1833,  he  made  but  rare 


TORIES  AT   HOLLAND   HOUSE  299 

appearances  in  London  drawing-rooms.  Directly  public 
business  permitted  it,  he  sought  refuge  at  Haddo,  where 
he  lived  in  stern  patriarchal  simplicity,  with  duties 
assigned  to  every  hour  of  the  day. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  CANNINGITES,   PALMERSTON,  AND 
MELBOURNE 


The  friends  of  Canning  —  Palmerston  —  His  slow  advance  —  Palmer- 
ston  in  society  —  As  Foreign  Secretary  —  His  marriage  —  The  Syrian 
crisis  —  Palmerston's  triumph  —  William  Lamb,  Lord  Melbourne  — 
His  marriage  —  Lamb  as  a  student  —  A  detached  politician  —  As  a 
Canningite  —  Home  Secretary  —  Lord  Melbourne's  Premierships  — 
His  unconventionality  —  His  character. 


greater  part  of  the  politicians  other  than  Whigs 
A  who  frequented  Holland  House  belonged  to  the 
band  over  which  Canning  cast  his  spell.  They 
all  had  ability,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Charles 
Grant,  subsequently  Lord  Glenelg,  a  worthy,  pious  man 
who  discussed  theology  with  Rogers,  but  who,  as  Grey's 
Colonial  Secretary,  was  totally  unequal  to  contending 
with  Brougham  in  debate,  and  left  the  mark  of  his 
irresolution  on  the  history  of  Canada  and  South  Africa. 
Most  of  them,  like  Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  Dudley, 
were  Tories  who  rebelled  against  the  quieta  non  movers 
principles  of  Lord  Eldon  and  Lord  Bathurst.  A  few, 
like  Lord  Melbourne,  were  Whigs  who  recoiled  from  the 
unpatriotic  extravagance  of  Whitbread.  Enthusiasts  for 

Catholic  Emancipation,  the  Canningites  were  no  believers 

300 


THE   CANNINGITES  301 

in  Parliamentary  Reform,  and  they  joined  the  Ministry 
of  1830  reluctantly  and  of  necessity.  But  the  tie  was  to 
a  considerable  extent  personal ;  they  were  dazzled  by  the 
versatile  brilliance  of  their  chief,  and  even  submitted  to 
being  disbanded  by  him  when  it  so  suited  his  purpose. 
The  Grenville,  Charles  Wynn  grumbled  thus:  "Can- 
ning always  likes  to  have  young  men  about  him  who  will 
wonder  at  and  admire  him,  and  they  would  be  flattered 
at  being  asked  to  meet  him."  Their  hero-worship, 
though  it  may  have  been  overstrained,  was  sincere,  and 
fidelity  to  his  memory  kept  the  little  band  together  after 
his  death,  until  it  became  absorbed  into  Whiggism, 
though  they  never  felt  quite  at  home  in  that  exclusive 
organisation. 

The  ablest  of  the  Canningites,  Lord  Palmerston,  re- 
tained his  leader's  principles  to  the  end  of  his  days. 
He  accepted  Parliamentary  Reform  as  a  disagreeable 
necessity,  and  in  his  later  years  adroitly  thwarted  any 
further  instalments  of  it ;  he  advocated  reciprocity  rather 
than  freedom  of  trade ;  above  all,  he  followed  the  car- 
dinal point  of  Canning's  system,  that  is  the  opposition, 
under  the  a3gis  of  England,  of  Powers  with  free  institu- 
tions to  despotic  Governments  like  Austria,  Prussia,  and 
Russia.  Unlike  Canning  in  one  respect,  he  ripened 
slowly.  As  Dugald  Stewart's  pupil  at  Edinburgh,  where 
he  laid  "the  foundation  for  whatever  useful  knowledge 
and  habits  of  mind"  he  possessed,  and  at  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  he  gained  a  character  for  industry. 
But  for  nearly  twenty  years  he  was  content  with  the  post 
of  Secretary  at  War  in  successive  Tory  Administrations, 
an  office  concerned  chiefly  with  finance  and  not  carry- 
ing with  it  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet.  He  refused  the  Chan- 
cellorship of  the  Exchequer  when  it  was  offered  him  by 


302  THE  HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Perceval,  and  the  Governor-Generalship  of  India  twice 
from  the  hands  of  Lord  Liverpool. 

Palmerston  was  unknown,  except  as  a  conscientious 
departmental  administrator,  until,  in  1828,  the  Canningites 
retired  from  the  Wellington  Ministry.  His  interests  lay 
rather  in  his  racing-stable,  in  country  pursuits,  and  his 
Irish  and  English  estates,  and  at  Almack's,  where  he 
was  known  as  "  Cupid "  and  a  great  lady-killer,  and 
where,  on  the  introduction  of  the  waltz,  he  could  be 
seen  dancing  with  Madame  de  Lieven.  Though  without 
any  literary  instincts,  he  had  a  smattering  of  science, 
and  the  squibs  he  wrote  for  the  Tory  papers,  in  con- 
junction with  Croker  and  others,  mostly  parodies  of 
Byron,  are  tolerable  specimens  of  rough-and-ready 
political  wit.  They  were  collected  in  a  slim  volume 
entitled  "The  New  Whig  Guide,"  and  the  curious  can 
find  in  it  the  origins  of  some  of  Creevey's  nicknames. 

In  Opposition,  Palmerston  found  his  opportunity,  and 
made  comprehensive  attacks  on  the  foreign  policy  of 
Lord  Aberdeen.  The  two  were  marked  out  for  rivalry ; 
the  former  being  experimental  beyond  the  verge  of 
rashness,  the  latter  cautious  up  to  the  edge  of  timidity. 
Palmerston's  speeches  were  oratorical  successes  ;  and, 
when  Lord  Grey  formed  his  Administration,  he  was  an 
acceptable  Foreign  Secretary.  He  held  the  appoint- 
ment for  eleven  years,  except  for  the  four  months  of 
Peel's  first  Premiership.  Lord  Grey  appears  to  have 
exercised  some  control  over  him  ;  Lord  Melbourne  but 
little.  Virtually  Palmerston  went  his  own  way,  and 
the  creation  of  the  kingdom  of  Belgium,  independent 
of  Holland  and  yet  not  subservient  to  France,  was  a 
striking  example  of  his  diplomatic  skill,  even  if  his 
various  devices  for  supporting  constitutionalism  in  Spain 


THE  CANNINGITES  303 

and  Portugal,  notably  the  despatch  of  the  British  Legion, 
were  too  clever  to  be  dignified. 

Palmerston's  faults  were  chiefly  those  of  manner. 
He  treated  the  representatives  of  foreign  Courts,  even 
a  veteran  like  Talleyrand,  too  much  as  if  they  were 
fellow-sportsmen  in  the  hunting-field.  His  despatches, 
too,  often  substituted  bluster  for  reasoned  argument, 
and  encouraged  his  subordinates,  Sir  Henry  Bulwer, 
for  example,  and  Lord  Ponsonby,  to  ruffle  it  in  season 
and  out  of  season.  British  meddling  in  the  internal 
affairs  of  the  smaller  States  passed  all  bounds ;  the 
Prime  Minister  was  expected  to  be  our  creature,  and 
as  a  natural  consequence  the  leader  of  the  Opposition 
received  direction  from  France.  Still,  the  ablest  of 
British  diplomatists,  Lord  Granville  for  one,  believed 
in  Palmerston  ;  and  Greville,  who  regarded  him  with  a 
malignant  eye,  was  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  when 
he  took  his  pen  in  hand  his  intellect  seemed  to  have 
full  play. 

In  1839  Lord  Palmerston  entered  the  Whig  cousin- 
ship  through  his  marriage  with  Lord  Melbourne's 
sister,  the  widow  of  Earl  Cowper,  who  had  long  been 
his  Egeria.  Lady  Granville  thought  that  foreign  affairs 
would  in  consequence  be  more  "  come-at-able "  than 
they  had  been  for  some  time,  and  that  Lord  Palmerston's 
incivilities  would  obtain  a  varnish.  The  prophecy  was 
for  the  moment  none  too  fortunate ;  for  within  a 
few  months  his  Quadrilateral  Treaty,  by  which  England, 
Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia  agreed  with  the  Porte  to 
combine  in  expelling  the  Egyptians  from  Syria,  brought 
this  country  to  the  brink  of  war  with  France,  whose 
sympathies  were  strongly  with  Mehemet  AH.  Here 
again  Palmerston  gauged  the  situation  with  a  penetrating 


304  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

eye.  The  Government  of  Louis  Philippe  aimed  at 
establishing  Egypt  in  the  Mediterranean  as  a  second- 
rate  Power  under  French  control,  whose  fleet  might 
help  to  destroy  our  maritime  preponderance.  He  also 
took  the  exact  measure  of  the  King  of  the  French, 
who,  after  preparations  for  war  had  been  hurried  on, 
suddenly  flinched,  dismissed  his  bellicose  Premier  Thiers, 
and  appointed  instead  the  pacific  Guizot,  who  was  re- 
called for  that  purpose  from  the  London  Embassy. 
The  dash  of  the  Allied  Fleet,  and  more  particularly  of 
Commodore  Napier,  who  bombarded  the  Egyptians 
out  of  Sidon  and  Acre,  did  the  rest. 

Palmerston  cannot  be  altogether  acquitted,  however, 
of  needlessly  offending  French  amour  propre  and  of 
refusing  concessions  on  points  of  form  to  Guizot 
which  would  have  brought  about  a  renewal  of  friendly 
relations.  The  pages  of  Greville,  who  throughout  the 
crisis  was  fetching  and  carrying  news  for  the  French 
Embassy  with  unwarrantable  zeal,  give  a  lively 
picture  of  the  perplexities  into  which  the  Melbourne 
Cabinet  was  thrown  by  Palmerston's  dashing  game. 
Traditional  Whiggism,  with  its  French  leanings,  was 
arrayed  against  Canningite  confidence  in  the  mission 
of  England. 

When  Lord  Holland  attacked  the  management  of  the 
Syrian  question,  Palmerston  completely  nonplussed  him 
by  producing  a  letter  of  warning  from  Sir  Henry  Bulwer, 
the  charge  d'affaires  in  Paris,  proving  that  his  intention 
of  so  doing  was  already  known  in  the  French  capital. 
The  bow,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  not  drawn  at  a 
venture.  But  "Bear"  Ellice  and  Greville  were  the 
chief  newsmongers  who  kept  the  French  Embassy 
primed  with  stories  of  Ministerial  dissensions.  Within 


VISCOUNT   MELBOURNE 

FKOM    THE    PAINTING    BV   JOHN    PARTRIDGE    IX    THE    NATIONAL    PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


THE   CANNINGITES  305 

a  few  days  of  the  trial  of  strength  in  the  Cabinet 
Lord  Holland  died,  and  Palmerston  hastened  to 
acknowledge  that  though  he  "felt,  or  rather  thought, 
strongly  on  public  affairs,  he  never  mixed  any  personal 
feeling  with  his  private  differences."  The  Palmerstons, 
indeed,  dined  frequently  at  Holland  House  during  the 
crisis,  and  there,  on  one  occasion,  Greville  busied  him- 
self with  trying  to  pick  Lady  Palmerston's  brains.  He 
considered  the  conversation  of  importance  as  showing 
the  state  of  her  husband's  mind.  We  may  be  sure, 
however,  that  she  told  him  just  as  much  and  just  as 
little  as  it  was  good  for  him  to  know. 

Lord  Melbourne  resembled  Lord  Palmerston,  with 
whom  in  other  respects  he  had  little  in  common,  in 
that  he  was  slow  in  coming  to  the  front.  Until  he 
was  nearly  fifty  he  was  known  as  a  man  of  fashion, 
with  literary  tastes,  who  had  not  accomplished  what  his 
friends  expected  of  him.  William  Lamb,  after  breaking 
a  poetic  lance  with  the  Anti- Jacobin,  a  contest  in 
which  he  was  signally  worsted,  had  made  good  the 
defects  of  Eton  and  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  by 
studying  at  Glasgow  under  Professor  Millar.  The 
letters  he  sent  thence  to  his  clever  mother  are  prig- 
gish in  tone  and  give  little  indication  of  future  ability. 
The  death  of  his  elder  brother  in  1804,  when  he  was 
reading  for  the  Bar,  changed  the  course  of  his  life.  In 
the  following  year  he  was  returned  for  Leominster, 
and  in  June  he  married  Lady  Caroline  Ponsonby.  His 
journal  shows  him  to  have  paid  close  attention  to 
politics,  but  he  had  made  but  little  mark  when,  at 
the  General  Election  of  1812,  he  fell  a  victim  to  the 
"No  Popery"  cry,  and  for  four  years  was  absent  from 
Parliament. 


306  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

During  those  years  occurred  the  crisis  of  his  domestic 
life.  An  easy-going  husband  and  a  flighty  wife  never 
make  a  well-assorted  couple,  and  in  the  Lambs'  case 
their  only  child,  who  might  have  brought  them  together, 
was  an  additional  source  of  unhappiness,  since  his 
intellect  never  developed.  "By  marrying,"  commented 
William  Lamb  in  his  commonplace  book,  "you  place 
yourself  upon  the  defensive  instead  of  the  offensive  in 
society,  which  latter  is  admitted  to  be  in  all  contentions 
the  most  advantageous  mode  of  proceeding."  Still,  they 
seem  to  have  been  fairly  happy  together  until  Byron 
came  into  contact  with  Lady  Caroline's  irregular  orbit. 
Enough  has  already  been  said  of  her  share  in  that 
unhappy  story.  Her  husband's  conduct  was  stigma- 
tised by  Greville  at  the  time  of  his  death  as  "good- 
natured,  eccentric,  and  not  nice."  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
he  seems  to  have  behaved  with  much  consideration 
to  an  elfish  being  whom  it  was  difficult  to  regard  as 
responsible,  and  delayed  separation  from  Lady  Caroline 
until  her  reason  finally  gave  way. 

Lamb  turned  for  consolation  to  letters,  and  it  was 
during  this  period  of  his  life  that  he  accumulated  those 
stores  of  learning  which  in  after  years  lent  attractiveness 
to  his  conversation.  His  commonplace  book  shows 
that  his  reading  ranged  freely  over  the  classics  and 
English  historians  like  Clarendon  and  Burnet;  he  was 
versed  in  patristic  theology,  a  philologist,  and  a  gram- 
marian. He  also  set  down  reflections  in  a  cynical  vein, 
which  only  needed  terseness  to  be  genuine  contributions 
to  whimsical  philosophy. 

When  Lamb  lost  his  seat,  Brougham  wrote  to  Lord 
Grey  that  he  was  as  much  of  a  Canningite  as  J.  W.  Ward 
(Lord  Dudley),  and  that  his  defeat  was  not  to  be  regretted. 


THE  CANNINGITES  307 

They  both  had  a  weakness  for  "little  prize  essays  of 
speeches,  got  up  and  polished,  and  useless,  quite  use- 
less, for  affairs."  He  returned  to  the  House  a  very 
detached  politician,  though  still  nominally  a  Whig,  who 
supported  the  Six  Acts  and  other  coercive  measures  of 
the  Tory  Government,  approved  of  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation, but  resisted  Parliamentary  Reform,  which  he 
anticipated  would  result  in  the  total  destruction  of 
freedom  of  speech.  His  chance  of  distinguishing  him- 
self came  when  he  was  appointed  Irish  Secretary  in  the 
Canning  Government,  and  an  efficient  Minister  he  made. 

Lamb  stuck  to  his  party  after  their  leader's  death, 
though  he  was  the  only  member  of  the  Whig  con- 
nection that  did  so,  and  resigned  with  them  shortly 
after  the  formation  of  the  Wellington  Administration 
because  "he  had  always  thought  it  more  necessary  to 
stand  by  his  friends  when  they  were  in  the  wrong  than 
when  in  the  right."  Together  with  the  rest  of  the 
Canningites,  he  swallowed  his  objections  to  Reform, 
in  his  case  very  strong  objections,  and  became  Home 
Secretary  under  Lord  Grey. 

Greville,  who  at  first  ridiculed  Melbourne  as  too  idle, 
soon  discovered  that  he  had  "  surprised  all  about  him  by  a 
sudden  display  of  activity  and  vigour,  rapid  and  diligent 
transaction  of  business,  for  which  nobody  was  prepared." 
He  was,  in  fact,  the  strong  man  of  the  Government,  and 
coped  manfully  with  the  violence  of  trade  unionism  in 
the  North  and  rick-burning  in  the  South,  while  as  the 
Minister  responsible  to  Parliament  for  Irish  affairs  he 
had  to  deal  with  an  agrarian  agitation  combined  with 
the  new  movement  for  Repeal.  His  firmness  made  him 
most  acceptable  to  William  IV.;  and,  Lord  Lansdowne 
being  unwilling,  his  colleagues  were  not  surprised  when 


3o8  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  choice  fell  upon  him  as  Prime  Minister  in  succession 
to  Lord  Grey.  Very  characteristic  was  his  saying  to  his 
private  secretary,  Tom  Young,  that  "he  thought  it  a 
damned  bore,  and  that  he  was  in  many  minds  what 
he  would  do — be  Minister  or  no."  There  came  the 
unanswerable  reply:  "Why,  damn  it,  such  a  position  was 
never  occupied  by  any  Greek  or  Roman,  and,  if  it  only 
lasts  two  months,  it  is  worth  while  to  have  been  Prime 
Minister  of  England." 

Lord  Melbourne's  two  Premierships  must  be  briefly 
dismissed.  His  first  lasted,  not  two  months,  but  four. 
The  Government  was  weak  when  formed  ;  it  was  still 
further  discredited  by  Brougham's  vagaries  in  the  North, 
and  his  wrangling  on  public  platforms  with  Lord 
Durham.  Disgusted  with  this  and  other  squabbles,  the 
Prime  Minister  practically  played  into  the  King's  hands 
when  Lord  Althorp's  elevation  to  the  Upper  House 
necessitated  a  reconstruction  of  the  Ministry,  and  its 
dismissal  was  far  more  of  a  voluntary  retirement  than  an 
autocratic  ejection  on  the  part  of  the  Sovereign.  When 
he  returned  to  office,  he  purged  the  Ministry  of  Brougham 
and  Durham  with  a  decision  which  proves  him  to  have 
been  far  removed  from  the  poco  curante  figurehead  that 
he  is  sometimes  represented  to  have  been.  But  the 
Government  of  1835  was  discredited  in  English  eyes 
because  it  could  not  dispense  with  the  capricious  support 
of  O'Connell.  It  had  to  reckon  from  the  first  with  the 
rooted  hostility  of  the  King  and  with  the  Tory  majority 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  which  freely  mutilated  or  rejected 
its  measures. 

The  succession  of  Queen  Victoria  gave  the  Government 
strength  collectively,  and  to  the  Prime  Minister  a  new 
object  in  life,  because  a  General  Election  sanctioned  him 


THE  CANNINGITES  309 

and  his  colleagues  as  the  guardians  of  their  youthful 
Sovereign.  Soon  afterwards,  however,  Brougham's  re- 
sentment found  a  convenient  target  in  the  Durham 
mission  to  Canada,  and  the  Prime  Minister,  kept  in  the 
dark  on  many  points  by  the  haughty  High  Commissioner, 
had  to  make  what  headway  he  could  against  an  orator  of 
superior  powers  to  his  own.  During  the  Syrian  crisis  his 
main  idea  was  to  keep  his  rickety  Cabinet  together,  and 
the  accusations  of  vacillation  brought  against  him  by 
Greville  are  not  supported  by  his  published  correspon- 
dence. He  may  have  clung  to  office  too  long,  but  there 
again  he  evidently  felt  that  his  first  duty  was  to  the  Queen, 
and  that  it  would  be  unkind  to  desert  her  until  her 
misunderstandings  with  Peel  had  been  removed. 

Lord  Melbourne  and  Mr.  Gladstone  are,  in  all  prob- 
ability, the  only  two  Prime  Ministers  who  have  found 
time  to  keep  themselves  posted  in  new  publications  during 
their  terms  of  office.  Even  under  the  stress  of  his  Home 
Secretaryship  the  former  was  investigating  early  dramatic 
literature,  and  asked  the  Principal  Librarian  of  the 
British  Museum  for  out-of-the-way  works  like  Rainold's 
"Overthrow  of  Stage  Plays"  and  Heywood's  "Apology 
for  Actors."  The  passages  already  given  from  Greville 
illustrate  the  uses  to  which  he  put  this  learning,  so 
persistently  acquired.  Lord  Melbourne  was  thoroughly 
at  home  at  Holland  House,  whither  he  had  constant 
recourse  for  political  advice,  and  where  he  was  allowed  to 
lounge  and,  presumably,  to  "  damn  "  as  he  pleased.  But, 
for  that  matter,  his  disregard  of  convention  was  not  to 
be  restrained  even  at  Windsor  Castle.  "  He  was  often 
paradoxical,"  writes  Greville,  "and  often  coarse,  terse, 
epigrammatic,  acute,  droll,  with  fits  of  silence  and 
abstraction,  from  which  he  would  break  out  with  a 


3io  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

vehemence  and  vigour  which  amused  those  who  were 
accustomed  to  him,  and  filled  with  indescribable  astonish- 
ment those  who  were  not."  A  hearty  laugh,  with  ejacu- 
lations of  "  Eh  !  eh  ! "  interposed  at  every  burst,  and  a 
rubbing  of  the  hands  together  were  tricks  of  his.  At 
the  same  time  he  was  easily  moved  by  the  expression 
of  a  fine  sentiment,  and  seldom  mentioned  the  Queen's 
name  without  tears  in  his  eyes. 

Melbourne's  was  really  a  far  more  sensitive  nature 
than  Greville  admits  in  an  otherwise  discriminating 
character  ;  that  nature,  though  essentially  open,  had  been 
sorely  tried  by  circumstance,  and  had  grown  to  conceal 
itself  under  a  mask  of  reckless  indifference.  Thus  he 
loved  to  put  off  the  philanthropic  by  describing  himself 
as  "  not  a  subscribing  sort  of  fellow,"  and  to  scandalise 
artists  by  declaring  that  Raphael  had  been  employed  to 
decorate  the  Vatican,  not  because  he  was  a  great  painter, 
but  because  his  uncle,  Bramante,  was  architect  to  the 
Pope.  It  was  at  Holland  House  that  he  staggered 
Moore  by  saying :  "  I  see  there  is  a  new  edition  of  Crabbe 
coming  out ;  it  is  a  good  thing  when  these  authors  die, 
for  then  one  gets  their  works  and  has  done  with  them." 
At  Holland  House,  too,  he  enunciated  the  proposition 
that  he  would  rather  have  men  about  him  when  he  was 
ill ;  it  required  very  strong  health  to  put  up  with  women. 
"Oh,"  said  Lady  Holland,  tapping  him  with  her  fan, 
"  you  have  lived  among  such  a  rantipole  set  " — which, 
by  all  accounts,  was  true  enough. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 
OTHER  COLLEAGUES  OF  CANNING 

Melbourne's  advice  to  Dudley — Dudley  as  Foreign  Secretary — 
"Ivy"  and  Bishop  Copleston — Dudley's  friendships — His  conversa- 
tion— His  relations  with  Holland  House — George  Ellis — "The 
Rolliad"  and  the  Anti-Jacobin — Ellis's  friendships — The  sixth 
Earl  of  Carlisle — Lord  Lyndhurst — A  lawyer-politician — "  For 
'views'  read  'prospects'" — Lyndhurst's  hospitality — His  conversion 
to  Toryism — Scarlett,  Lord  Abinger — Scarlett  and  the  Whigs — Qui 
s'excuse — "  Not  at  Home." 

LORD  MELBOURNE  was  an  intimate  friend  of  John 
William  Ward,  Lord  Dudley,  the  most  brilliant 
intellectually  of  all  the  Canningites.  When  Ward 
was  offered  the  Under-Secretaryship  for  Foreign  Affairs 
in  1822,  he  consulted  William  Lamb,  who  advised  him 
to  take  it,  while  warning  him  that  he  would  have  to  bear 
every  species  of  malice  and  misrepresentation  and  the 
imputation  of  the  most  sordid  and  interested  motives. 
After  painful  vacillation  Ward  declined  the  appointment, 
partly  because  it  was  "a  completely  subordinate  situa- 
tion." Yet  office  under  Canning  might  possibly  have 
arrested,  through  the  medicine  of  hard  work,  the  torpor 
that  was  even  then  creeping  over  that  over-sensitive 
brain. 

Five    years    later,    when    he    became    Secretary    for 

3" 


312  THE    HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

Foreign  Affairs  in  Canning's  Administration,  it  was  too 
late.  So  long  as  the  Prime  Minister  lived,  all  went  well, 
since  Canning  kept  our  dealings  with  Portugal  and  the 
Porte  under  his  personal  control.  But  after  he  died 
Lord  Dudley,  left  to  his  own  resources,  failed  to  grapple 
with  the  perplexing  situation  created  by  the  usurpation 
of  Dom  Miguel  and  the  Battle  of  Navarino.  His  chief 
exploit,  if  the  story  is  true,  was  to  enclose  letters  in- 
tended for  the  French  and  Russian  Ambassadors  in  the 
wrong  envelopes.  Prince  Lieven  returned  his  with  a 
polite  note  saying  that  of  course  he  had  not  read  a  word 
of  it,  and  with  suppressed  but  profound  admiration  for 
a  Foreign  Minister  who  could  set  so  dexterous  a  trap. 
But  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  when  he  became  Prime 
Minister,  discovered  that  Lord  Dudley's  slowness  in 
writing  despatches  and  preparing  his  speeches  disabled 
him  from  coping  with  the  current  business  of  the  office, 
and  Lord  Aberdeen  was  associated  with  him  as  "co- 
adjutor de  jure  successionis.  Within  a  few  weeks  the 
Canningites  were  out,  after  Dudley  had  been  painfully 
divided  between  his  duties  to  his  colleagues  and  the 
King.  "  He  would  willingly,"  wrote  Palmerston  in  his 
diary,  "  have  given  .£6,000  a  year  out  of  his  own  pocket, 
instead  of  receiving  that  sum  from  the  public,  for  the 
pleasure  of  continuing  to  be  Secretary  of  State  for 
Foreign  Affairs." 

A  stay  at  the  Foreign  Office  lasting  for  little  more  than 
a  year,  some  speeches  more  polished  than  practical, 
and  some  articles  of  varying  merits  in  the  Quarterly 
Review  are  the  sum  of  Lord  Dudley's  achievement.  Yet 
at  the  outset  of  his  career  the  world  seemed  at  his  feet. 
He  was  rich,  highly  educated,  and  original.  Unhappily, 
he  had  grown  up,  at  the  same  time,  a  hothouse  plant, 


OTHER  COLLEAGUES  OF  CANNING         313 

his  mind  forced  at  the  expense  of  his  body  by  tutor  after 
tutor,  to  whose  charge  his  thoughtless  and  free-living 
parents  committed  him.  It  was  not  until  he  was  placed 
under  the  care  of  Dugald  Stewart  in  Edinburgh  that  he 
had  a  real  home,  and  found  in  Mrs.  Stewart,  the  "  Ivy  " 
of  the  letters  given  to  the  world  in  1905  by  Mr.  S.  H. 
Romilly,  a  gifted  companion  whom  he  worshipped 
with  an  affection  half  filial  and  half  romantic.  Oriel 
College,  Oxford,  followed  in  1799,  and  there  he 
formed  a  friendship  with  his  tutor,  Copleston,  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Llandaff,  but  not  of  such  an  intimate 
character. 

Lord  Dudley's  correspondence  with  the  Bishop,  pub- 
lished by  the  latter  in  1840,  was  characterised  by  Greville 
at  the  time  of  its  appearance  as  artificial,  and  it  is,  no 
doubt,  the  composition  of  a  pupil  writing  to  a  literary 
superior,  and  never  quite  at  his  ease.  To  Mrs.  Dugald 
Stewart  he  poured  out  his  whole  soul,  and,  though  gaps 
occur  in  the  correspondence,  he  appears,  almost  to  the 
last,  as  a  playfully  amiable,  modest,  and  simple  gentle- 
man. His  friendships,  too,  were  numerous,  and,  in 
addition  to  Canning  and  other  politicians  of  his  way 
of  thinking,  included  Whigs  like  Brougham  and  Sydney 
Smith  and  Rogers,  except  when  the  thrust  of  the  review 
was  met  by  the  parry  of  the  epigram.  Though  he  lived 
carefully  and  looked  after  his  affairs,  he  was  liberal  in 
entertainment.  "Those  who  did  not  dine  with  him," 
wrote  a  friendly  hand  in  the  Quarterly  Review,  "  asserted 
that  his  days  were  spent  in  writing  dinner  invitations." 
From  the  same  authority  it  may  be  gathered  that,  though 
he  never  married,  he  "  was  always  in  a  sort  of  love ;  and 
when  he  did  set  his  Platonic  affections  on  other  men's 
wives,  he  never  did  so  by  halves.  It  was  difficult  to 


314  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

determine  whether  he  admired  them  or  their  husbands 
the  most." 

From  fits  of  intense  dejection,  which  culminated  in 
insanity,  Lord  Dudley  sought  refuge  in  travel,  though 
he  took  but  little  interest  in  art  and  was  signally 
insensible  to  natural  beauties.  He  stood  with  Sir 
Henry  Holland  on  the  roof  of  Milan  Cathedral  with- 
out a  single  phrase  of  admiration  for  the  wonderful 
view.  But  he  studied  city-living  mankind,  whether 
London  or  Vienna  was  the  place,  with  an  observant 
eye,  and  no  better  summary  exists  of  the  results  of  the 
French  Revolution,  good  as  well  as  bad,  than  is  to  be 
found  in  his  letters  to  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff.  In 
society  he  had  tricks  of  abstraction  and  of  muttering 
to  himself  in  two  voices,  one  gruff,  the  other  shrill, 
which  latterly  became  disconcerting  to  his  friends,  and 
the  sources  of  ill-natured  stories  spread  abroad  by  the 
unthinking.  He  is  the  Lord  Dallas  of  "  Glenarvon," 
described  by  Lady  Caroline  Lamb  as 

"  diminutive  and  conceited,  had  a  brilliant  wit ;  spoke 
seldom  and  studied  deeply  every  sentence  he  uttered.  He 
affected  to  be  absent,  but  in  fact  no  one  ever  forgot  himself 
so  seldom.  His  voice,  untuned  and  harsh,  repeated  with  a 
forced  emphasis  certain  jests  and  bons  mots  which  had  been 
previously  made  and  adapted  for  certain  conversations." 

This  is,  of  course,  a  gross  caricature  of  a  man  praised 
by  Madame  de  Stae'l  as  the  only  true  cultivator  of  the 
art  of  conversation  in  England.  Withal,  there  does 
seem  to  have  been  a  certain  artificiality  about  Lord 
Dudley's  talk.  Moore  complained  of  it,  and  Creevey 
declared  that  he  could  be  put  down  by  the  more 


OTHER  COLLEAGUES  OF  CANNING         315 

nimble  wit  of  Jekyll.  He  dealt  sometimes  in  direct 
personal  sarcasm,  as  in  his  reply  to  Rogers,  who  was 
quoting  the  lines  : 

"The  robin,  with  his  furtive  glance, 
Comes  and  looks  at  me  askance." 

"If  it  had  been  a  carrion  crow,"  said  Dudley,  "he 
would  have  looked  you  full  in  the  face."  Then  there 
is  his  crushing  retort  to  the  Viennese  lady  who  com- 
plained of  the  wretched  French  spoken  in  London  :  "  It 
is  true,  madame,  but  we  have  not  had  the  advantage 
of  having  the  French  twice  in  our  capital."  He  could, 
however,  be  gay  enough.  Thus,  as  befitted  an  accom- 
plished scholar  who  preferred  an  old  classic  to  a  new 
publication,  he  answered,  when  asked  if  he  had  read 
one  of  Scott's  novels,  "  I  am  ashamed  to  say  I  have 
not,  but  I  am  in  hopes  that  it  will  soon  blow  over." 
All  the  same,  he  criticised  current  authorship  with 
point. 

Lord  Dudley's  association  with  Lord  and  Lady 
Holland  was  not  altogether  harmonious.  He  seems 
to  have  accompanied  them  in  1808  on  part  of  their 
journey  through  Spain.  But  she  was  to  him  a 
feminine  Dr.  Fell,  and  some  scornful  remarks  on  her 
character  and  past,  confided  to  "  Ivy "  as  they  were 
waiting  to  start  at  Falmouth,  did  not  argue  well  for 
the  peace  of  the  expedition.  Eventually — about  the 
year  1812  it  would  seem — a  downright  breach  occurred, 
because,  as  has  been  already  mentioned,  Lord  Dudley 
could  not  put  up  with  Lady  Holland's  dictation.  The 
quarrel  endured  until  1832,  when,  as  his  mind  was  fast 
giving  way,  the  town  was  astonished  to  hear  that  he  had 


3i6  THE    HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

called  at  Holland  House ;  that  a  reconciliation  dinner 
was  to  be  given,  to  include  Luttrell,  against  whom  he 
also  bore  a  grudge,  and  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
and  Lord  Lyndhurst  were  invited  to  meet  the  party. 
The  odd  assortment  did  not  take  place  because,  when 
the  guests  arrived,  they  found  that  their  host  was  too 
ill  to  receive  them,  an  incident  improved  by  Croker  into 
a  statement  that  he  was  dining  elsewhere.  Two  days 
afterwards  Sir  Henry  Halford  placed  him  under  re- 
straint, and  the  world  knew  no  more  of  a  gifted  and 
unhappy  man. 

While  Lord  Dudley  held  the  reputation  of  one  of  the 
acutest  talkers  of  the  day,  his  friend,  and  Canning's 
friend,  George  Ellis,  was  confused  and  unintelligible 
in  conversation.  He  is  not  the  only  man  of  letters  who 
has  found  the  pen  a  readier  instrument  than  the  tongue. 
In  the  House  of  Commons  Ellis  sat  silent  during  the 
Parliament  of  1796  as  junior  member  for  Seaford,  with 
his  cousin  Charles  Ellis,  afterwards  Lord  Dover,  another 
frequenter  of  Holland  House,  as  his  colleague  in  the 
representation  of  that  small  borough.  He  also  accom- 
panied Lord  Malmesbury  on  some  of  his  diplomatic  mis- 
sions, and  when  he  took  part  in  that  to  Lille,  William 
Lamb  satirised  his  "sapient  prominence  of  nose." 
Ellis  could  afford  to  take  the  joke  in  good  part,  since  he 
had  a  hand  in  "The  Rolliad,"  which  scarified  the  Tories, 
and,  after  he  had  cut  himself  clear  of  Whiggism,  in  the 
Anti-Jacobin,  which  threw  ridicule  on  Fox  and  the  Duke 
of  Bedford.  To  the  former  he  contributed  the  burlesque 
heraldry  of  the  introduction  and  the  fierce  attack  on 
Pitt,  beginning,  "  Pert  without  fire,  without  experience 
sage  "  ;  in  the  latter  he  played  a  worthy  third  to  Frere 
and  Canning. 


OTHER  COLLEAGUES  OF  CANNING         317 

But  Ellis  is  chiefly  remembered,  perhaps,  as  an 
attached  friend  of  the  great.  Canning  delighted  in  his 
society,  and  his  papers  may  one  of  these  days  disclose 
the  extent  to  which  he  leant  on  Ellis  for  advice.  In 
1 80 1  came  another  important  intimacy,  for  in  that  year 
he  met  Sir  Walter  Scott.  They  had  tastes  in  common, 
besides  being  fellow-contributors  to  the  Quarterly.  Ellis 
showed  himself,  by  his  "  Specimens  of  the  Early  Eng- 
lish Poets  "  and  "  Specimens  of  Early  English  Romances 
in  Metre,"  to  be  a  discriminating  cultivator  of  the  fields 
to  which  Sir  Walter  first  turned  his  attention.  Their 
correspondence,  as  published  in  Lockhart's  "  Life  of 
Scott,"  abounds  in  critical  discussion,  and  the  majority 
would  probably  agree  with  Ellis  when  he  pronounced 
against  an  unexpurgated  edition  of  Dryden,  with  the 
proviso  that  if  omissions  must  be  made  they  should 
only  affect  the  passages  in  which  the  poet  became  dull. 
Scott,  by  the  way,  declared  Ellis  to  be  the  best  con- 
verser  he  had  ever  known,  in  flat  contradiction  to  the 
general  opinion.  The  explanation  may  possibly  be  that 
he  did  himself  justice  in  a  tete-a-tete,  but  was  unequal 
to  contending  in  a  general  melee  of  wits. 

George,  sixth  Earl  of  Carlisle,  was  an  amiable  Whig 
who  entered  Canning's  Cabinet  as  First  Commissioner 
of  Woods  and  Forests,  and  subsequently  became  Lord 
Privy  Seal  under  Lord  Grey.  He  was  the  son  of  the 
better-known  Lord  Carlisle  who,  in  his  youth,  unwisely 
became  responsible  for  Fox's  gambling  debts,  and  had 
in  consequence  to  intern  himself  at  Castle  Howard,  and 
whose  "paralytic  puling"  was  attacked  by  Byron  in 
"  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers,"  because  of  his 
neglect  to  take  any  trouble  in  introducing  his  ward  to 
the  House  of  Lords.  The  sixth  earl  had  an  earlier 


318  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

period  of  Toryism,  since  he  was,  as  Lord  Morpeth,  a 
contributor  to  the  Anti-Jacobin,  turning  his  attention 
to  Citizen  Muskein,  and  a  hearty  supporter  of  the  Union. 
A  wavering  politician,  he  performed  the  duties  of  friend- 
ship in  admirable  taste  when  he  paid  an  affecting  tribute 
to  the  memory  of  Francis  Horner ;  while  Lady  Gran- 
ville's  correspondence  with  her  sister,  his  Countess,  gives 
glimpses  of  a  pleasant  home-life.  His  son  was  the  Lord 
Morpeth  who  distinguished  himself  as  Irish  Secretary 
in  Lord  Melbourne's  second  Administration — the  most 
successful,  perhaps,  among  the  many  occupants  of  that 
difficult  post. 

Lyndhurst,  Canning's  Lord  Chancellor,  and  Scarlett, 
his  Attorney-General,  began  as  Liberals  and  ended  as 
Tories.  The  former  incurred,  during  the  early  years 
of  his  public  career,  the  bitter  reproaches  of  his  political 
opponents  as  an  apostate  from  Whig  principles.  Lord 
Campbell,  in  the  "  Lives  of  the  Chancellors,"  elaborated 
the  charge  in  the  elongated  libel  which  purports  to 
be  a  biography  of  Lord  Lyndhurst.  In  reality  he  was 
a  detached  lawyer-politician  who,  throughout  his  life, 
argued  to  his  brief.  As  the  son  of  the  American  painter, 
Copley,  he  could  claim  no  hereditary  connection  with 
either  of  the  English  political  parties.  In  his  early  days 
at  the  Bar  he  may  have  aired  democratic  sentiments 
on  the  Midland  Circuit,  and  he  seems  to  have  attended 
Radical  debating  clubs.  If,  as  advocate,  he  identified 
himself  with  extreme  opinions  one  month,  by  defen- 
ding Watson,  one  of  the  ringleaders  in  the  Spa  Fields 
riots,  he  was  ready  the  next  to  accept  a  retainer  from 
the  Crown  to  prosecute  Brandreth,  the  leader  of  the 
pitiful  stocking-maker's  rising. 

When  Serjeant  Copley  entered   the   House  of   Com- 


OTHER  COLLEAGUES  OF  CANNING         319 

mons  as  member  for  the  Treasury  borough  of  Yar- 
mouth, Isle  of  Wight,  in  1818,  he  evidently  looked  on 
Parliament  as  a  means  of  pushing  his  fortune  at  the  Bar. 
Politics  were  with  him  a  matter  of  business ;  and  to  that 
extent  there  is  force  in  Mackintosh's  emendation  when 
he  exculpated  himself  from  the  charge  of  inconsistency 
on  the  ground  that  "  he  had  seen  nothing  in  the  views, 
the  policy,  or  the  conduct  of  the  gentlemen  opposite  to 
induce  him,  as  a  true  friend  of  the  Constitution,  to 
join  them."  "  For  '  views'  read  ' prospects,'  "  whispered 
Mackintosh  to  Lord  John  Russell.  The  Attorney- 
Generalship,  in  1824,  and  the  Mastership  of  the  Rolls, 
two  years  later,  were  successive  steps  on  the  ladder  of 
promotion  ;  and  he  accepted  the  Chancellorship  from 
Canning,  though  only  a  few  weeks  before  he  had  been 
castigated  by  that  emotional  statesman  for  a  declaration 
against  the  Catholic  claims. 

Holland  House  probably  saw  most  of  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst  during  his  first  Chancellorship.  Essentially  broad- 
minded  in  the  disposal  of  his  patronage,  he  appointed 
Sydney  Smith  to  a  prebendal  stall  in  Bristol  Cathedral. 
His  private  friends  included  quite  as  many  Whigs  as 
Tories ;  Brougham  was  among  them,  and  Earl  Grey,  and 
even  the  Radical  Burdett.  Lord  Lyndhurst  was  essen- 
tially a  society  man,  delighting  in  dining  and  being  dined, 
in  driving  a  cabriolet,  to  the  scandal  of  Lord  Eldon, 
and  in  dressing  like  a  cavalry  officer,  to  the  scandal  of 
the  stricter  Bar.  His  wife,  the  widow  of  a  colonel  in 
the  Guards,  has  come  down  to  us  as  one  of  the  most 
handsome  of  Lawrence's  matrons.  She  recruited  her 
drawing-room  in  George  Street  from  many  sources 
besides  the  legal  profession,  and  the  generous  profusion 
of  Lord  Lyndhurst's  regime  stood  in  the  strongest  con- 


320  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

trast  with  the  thrift  of  Lord  Eldon's.  The  pair  lived 
up  to  the  Lord  Chancellor's  salary  of  .£14,000  a  year, 
and  possibly  beyond  it.  They  migrated  to  Paris  for  the 
winter,  and  there  mixed  with  politicians  and  diplo- 
matists, going  frequently  to  the  British  Embassy.  It  was 
in  Paris  that  Lady  Lyndhurst  died  in  1834.  She  had 
been  her  husband's  best  adviser,  and  no  small  portion 
of  his  political  success  was  due  to  her  social  influence. 
By  the  time  of  his  wife's  death  Lord  Lyndhurst 
had  become  definitely  associated  with  Tory  politics. 
The  Act  of  Reform  had  created  a  dividing  line  which 
he  was  never  to  recross.  But  up  to  that  date  he  had 
been  regarded  as  a  politician  who  might  join  either 
side  without  much  loss  of  character — another  way  of 
saying  that  he  had  not  much  character  to  lose. 
While  Peel  never  lived  down  his  conversion  to  the 
cause  of  Catholic  Emancipation,  nobody  thought 
much  the  worse  of  Lyndhurst  for  his  change  of  front, 
though  it  was  equally  abrupt  and  far  less  sincere.  In 
the  last  days  of  the  Wellington  Ministry  he  laboured 
to  bring  Lord  Grey  into  the  Government,  and 
approximated  success.  When  the  Whigs  came  to 
their  own  it  seemed  quite  likely  that  he  would  be 
retained  as  Chancellor,  but  a  demonstration  from 
Brooks's  resulted  in  the  dropping  of  the  idea.  Again, 
he  made  »no  bones  about  receiving  the  appointment 
of  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer  as  a  gift  from  his 
old  friend  Brougham.  After  Lyndhurst  had  placed 
himself  at  the  head  of  resistance  to  Reform,  the 
Whigs  regarded  him  with  a  very  different  eye.  His 
blistering  sarcasms  galled  them  sorely,  and  his  obnoxious- 
ness  increased  as  time  went  on.  It  was  in  answer  to 
Lord  Holland's  angry  lamentation  against  his  mutila- 


OTHER  COLLEAGUES  OF  CANNING         321 

tion  of  the  Government  Bills  that  he  delivered,  in 
1836,  the  first  of  those  scathing  reviews  of  the  session 
which  were  the  chief  cause  of  the  Whig  debacle  in 
1841. 

For  such  a  considerable  person,  James  Scarlett,  Lord 
Abinger,  has  left  a  very  meagre  record  behind  him. 
The  son  who  undertook  his  biography  was  evidently 
at  some  loss  for  materials.  An  unfinished  fragment 
of  recollections  touches  on  his  intimacy  with  Romilly, 
his  companion  in  long  walks  after  the  courts  had 
risen  about  two  o'clock — a  different  state  of  affairs 
from  the  present.  Scarlett  reveals,  too,  the  secret  of 
his  success  as  a  matchless  verdict-winner,  which  con- 
sisted in  studying  the  shifting  feelings  of  the  jury  and 
never  talking  above  their  heads.  He  would  open  a 
case  in  five  minutes,  understating  rather  than  over- 
stating his  facts,  against  the  half  or  three-quarters  of  an 
hour  occupied  by  others. 

Scarlett  brought  his  cross-questioning  habits  with 
him  out  to  dinner,  and  Sydney  Smith  used  to  say 
that  "  Do  you  know,  Sydney,  you  are  not  altogether 
in  the  wrong,"  was  the  highest  compliment  ever  paid 
him  by  his  friend.  In  spite  of  his  disputatiousness, 
the  Whig  leaders  apparently  set  store  by  Scarlett,  who 
refused  more  than  one  appointment  from  the  Tories, 
and  he  consulted  Lords  Grey  and  Fitzwilliam  before 
accepting  the  Attorney-Generalship  from  Canning. 
Though  he  left  office  when  Wellington  became 
Premier,  he  felt  free  to  join  the  Administration  in  its 
last  days  as  Attorney-General  for  the  second  time, 
and  again  the  Whig  leaders  encouraged  him  to 
accept  the  appointment,  and  even,  according  to  his 
own  account,  pressed  him  to  take  it.  Nevertheless, 

T 


322  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

when  the  Government  was  changed  he  was  dismissed 
sans  phrase. 

Post  hoc  and  possibly  propter  hoc,  Scarlett  vigorously 
opposed  the  Reform  Bill.  An  attempt  to  explain  him- 
self at  Lord  Holland's  carriage  window  produced  a 
good-natured  letter  from  that  nobleman,  signed  "  Ever 
truly  and  unalterably  yours,"  and  expressing  a  hope 
that  when  the  business  of  Parliamentary  Reform  was 
over,  Scarlett  might  be  reckoned  a  Whig  once  more. 
The  reply  was  a  long  and  acrimonious  citation  of 
past  services  to  the  party,  of  Tory  lures  refused  and  of 
fidelity  to  Whig  principles  preserved.  Too  much  on 
the  lines  of  qui  s'excuse,  the  letter  is,  nevertheless,  a 
protest  typical  of  many  that  must  from  time  to  time 
have  disturbed  the  repose  of  the  Whig  chiefs.  Its 
writer  was  "  too  proud  and  perhaps  too  calm "  for 
resentment,  but 

At  any  rate,  Scarlett  was  finally  and  decisively  un- 
Whigged,  and  directly  the  Tories  came  in  they  made 
him  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer.  Even  before  that 
he  complained  that  the  Hollands  and  all  connected  with 
them  had  forgotten  his  existence.  There  came  a  day 
when  Lady  Holland  was  "  not  at  home,"  the  explana- 
tion being  that  she  was  engaged  with  the  Russian 
Minister,  Count  Pozzo  di  Borgo.  Tantcene  animis ! 
Wiser  in  his  generation  than  Scarlett,  Sir  James 
Graham,  after  he  had  become  a  convert  to  Conserva- 
tism, declined  all  further  invitations  on  the  ground 
that  his  presence  was  disagreeable  in  the  eyes  of  the 
friends  of  Holland  House.  The  Whigs  could  make 
their  resentments  felt. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 
FOREIGN   REFUGEES  AND  VISITORS 

Ugo  Foscolo — A  "  tremendous  "  companion — "  From  a  lion  to  a 
bore" — Blanco  White— His  reception  at  Holland  House — A  melan- 
choly tutor — With  Archbishop  Whately — White  becomes  a  Unitarian 
— Calonne — His  exit  speech — Louis  Philippe — Etienne  Dumont 
and  Mirabeau — Dumont's  worship  of  Bentham — Madame  de  Stael 
— "The  perpetual  motion" — A  welcome  outstayed — Washington 
Irving — George  Ticknor — His  impressions  of  Holland  House. 

HOLLAND  HOUSE  cultivated  the  political 
refugee,  not  always  to  its  comfort.  Sydney 
Smith's  letters  afford  a  fleeting  glimpse  of  an 
Italian,  Pecchio  by  name,  who  drifted  up  to  Yorkshire 
through  its  gates  and  there  married  an  heiress. 
Another  and  more  famous  Italian,  Ugo  Foscolo,  was 
not  equally  amenable  to  English  influence.1  That 
purifier  of  his  country's  language  made  England 
his  resting-place,  if  rest  can  be  associated  with  his 
name,  in  1816.  Foscolo  had  hailed  Napoleon  as 
deliverer  of  Italy,  and  served  under  him  in  1806  at 
St.  Omer  and  Calais  as  an  officer  in  the  Army  of 
Invasion.  He  had  covertly  attacked  Napoleon's  rule, 
and  had  been  evicted  in  consequence  from  his  pro- 
fessorial chair  in  the  University  of  Padua  ;  and 

'  He  was  born  on  the  island  of  Zante,  of  Venetian  parentage. 

323 


324  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

after  1815  he  had  made  Zurich  too  hot  to  hold  him 
by  a  satire  directed  against  the  restoration  of  the 
Austrian  Government  in  Lombardy.  His  "  Essays  on 
Petrarch,"  written  in  excellent  English,  soon  won  him 
a  literary  reputation. 

Foscolo  was  invited  to  Holland  House,  probably  on 
Rogers's  introduction,  and,  in  a  letter  to  Horner,  Lord 
Holland  declared  that  "his  learning  and  vivacity  are 
wonderful,  and  he  seems  to  have  great  elevation  of 
mind,  and  to  be  totally  exempt  from  affectation, 
though  not  perhaps  equally  so  from  enthusiasm, 
violence,  and  resentment."  His  vivacity,  unfortunately, 
assumed  exuberant  forms.  Under  the  excitement  of 
contradiction  he  would  rise  from  the  dinner-table  and 
stamp  about  the  room,  his  knife  in  his  hand.  Thus 
Sir  Henry  Holland  ;  Jekyll  was  equally  graphic. 
"  With  all  his  learning  and  talents  he  is  what  Dr. 
Johnson  would  call  a  'tremendous'  companion,  utter- 
ing, with  the  clamour  of  a  speaking-trumpet,  a  jargon 
composed  of  every  language  under  heaven  and  never 
combined  before  since  the  Tower  of  Babel.  At 
Holland  House  they  grew  dead  sick  of  him."  In 
fairness  it  must  be  said  that  their  weariness  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  in  1821 
the  essayist,  having  borrowed  three  MS.  letters  of 
Petrarch  from  the  library,  contrived  to  lose  them, 
though,  after  they  had  been  advertised  for  in  vain, 
they  were  eventually  discovered  in  the  pages  of  a  folio 
book.  Lord  Holland  took  the  mishap  in  the  best  of 
tempers,  and  warmly  defended  the  genuineness  of  the 
letters  against  the  strictures  of  the  Abbe  Meneghelli. 

It  was  Ugo  Foscolo's  misfortune,  however,  to  alienate 
all  his  friends.  Sir  Walter  Scott  remembered  him  as 


FOREIGN   REFUGEES  AND  VISITORS        325 

haunting  Murray's  publishing  house  and  as  sinking  in 
two  seasons  from  a  lion  to  a  bore.  Though  he  made 
considerable  sums  by  his  contributions  to  the  Quarterly, 
and,  it  is  said,  as  much  as  ^1,000  by  his  lectures  on  the 
Italian  poets,  he  squandered  his  gains  in  beautifying 
Digamma  Cottage,  St.  John's  Wood  ;  tormented  Murray 
with  impracticable  statements  of  his  affairs,  and  sponged 
for  "loans,"  which  he  haughtily  declined  to  regard  as 
"  gratuities."  There  came  the  debtors'  prison,  and  death 
from  dropsy  at  Turnham  Green  when  he  was  only  in  his 
fiftieth  year.  He  lies,  not  as  he  had  proposed,  under  a 
plane-tree  on  English  soil  in  a  tomb  designed  by  himself, 
but  in  Santa  Croce,  the  Westminster  Abbey  of  Florence, 
between  the  tomb  of  Alfieri  and  the  monument  of  Dante ; 
nor  is  the  honour  unmerited.1 

Ugo  Foscolo,  the  ebullient,  suggests,  by  a  contrast  of 
ideas,  Blanco  White,  the  depressed.  That  erratic  theo- 
logian, the  son  of  an  Irish  merchant  of  Seville  and  an 
Andalusian  lady,  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Hollands 
in'  1809,  when  they  were  travelling  in  Spain,  about  the 
time  that  he  was  emerging  from  his  first  religious  phase, 
membership  of  the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood.  The 
process  was  complete  by  the  following  year ;  and,  with 
scepticism  strong  within  him,  Blanco  White  availed  him- 
self of  the  Spanish  Revolution  to  cut  himself  clear  of  his 
country  and  his  calling.  Having  escaped  the  vigilance  of 
the  local  government  at  Cadiz  by  "  damning  the  eyes " 
of  an  official  in  good  round  English,  he  landed  safely  on 
English  soil,  and  soon  after  his  arrival  in  London  pre- 

1  Foscolo  was  buried  at  Chiswick,  but  in  1871  his  remains  were 
transferred  to  Florence  by  the  Italian  Government.  A  cenotaph  by 
Marochetti  marks  the  spot  where  "  the  wearied  citizen  poet "  rested 
for  forty-four  years  in  Chiswick  churchyard. 


326  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

sented  himself  at  Holland  House.  "My  reception  by 
Lady  Holland,"  he  writes  in  his  autobiography,  "  was 
not  encouraging.  Perhaps  Lady  H.'s  manner  originated 
in  the  too  sanguine  notions  which  she  and  most  of  her 
friends  entertained  at  that  time  of  the  prospects  of  Spain : 
according  to  such  notions  I  ought  to  have  remained  at 
Cadiz."  However,  she  relented,  and  Blanco  White  pays 
a  warm  tribute  to  the  qualities  of  her  heart  and  mind 
and  to  the  steadiness  of  her  friendship,  while  of  Lord 
Holland  he  declares  that  every  one  who  approached  him 
must  have  loved  him. 

It  was  impossible,  on  the  other  side,  not  to  like  the 
gentle  and  shrinking  man  of  letters,  cast  adrift  in 
troublous  times.  Lord  Holland  and  Allen  helped  Blanco 
White  with  constant  advice  when  he  started  the  Espanol, 
a  periodical  supporting  the  Revolutionary  cause,  which, 
however,  embroiled  him  with  patriots  of  different  ways 
of  thought.  It  continued  until  the  expulsion  of  the 
French  from  Spain,  when  the  British  Government 
granted  him  a  pension  of  ^250  a  year.  By  that  time 
Blanco  White  had  embraced  Anglicanism,  and  had 
settled  at  Oxford  to  qualify  himself  for  orders.  He  was 
recalled  to  London,  much  against  his  will,  to  be  tutor  to 
Lord  Holland's  son,  Henry,  the  heir  to  the  title.  The 
melancholy  man  "  suffered  dreadfully  " — to  use  his  own 
expression — during  his  two  years'  residence  at  Holland 
House,  though  kindly  allusions  to  him  occur  in  the 
correspondence  of  Sydney  Smith  and  others.  He  prac- 
tised asceticism  under  a  roof  which  cannot  have  sheltered 
many  sympathisers,  and  repeatedly  requested  to  be 
released  from  an  occupation  to  which  his  health  and 
spirits  were  totally  unequal.  He  declined  to  accompany 
the  Hollands  to  Belgium,  and  on  June  17,  1817,  the  day 


FOREIGN   REFUGEES  AND  VISITORS        327 

they  left  town,  wrote  resigning  his  charge.  Lord 
Holland's  reply  is  printed  in  Blanco  White's  autobio- 
graphy ;  it  could  not  have  been  better  calculated  to 
soothe  a  hypersensitive  spirit. 

The  kindness  of  Holland  House  did  not  end  with 
Blanco  White's  departure.  Sir  William  Scott  was  con- 
sulted on  the  possibility  of  a  Roman  priest  entering 
Anglican  orders.  In  spite  of  heretical  views  on  Catholic 
Emancipation,  Blanco  White  was  permitted  to  quote 
Lord  Holland  as  fully  satisfied  of  the  honour  and 
integrity  of  his  conduct  both  in  Spain  and  in  England. 
He  kept  up  a  fairly  regular  correspondence  with  his 
patron,  especially  after  he  had  sought  refuge  from  the 
slights,  probably  imaginary,  inflicted  on  him  by  the 
Fellows  in  the  Oriel  Common-room — the  Common- 
room  of  Newman  and  Charles  Marriott — by  becoming 
tutor  to  the  son  of  Whately,  the  Archbishop  of 
Dublin.  The  efforts  of  that  broad-minded  states- 
man-ecclesiastic to  compose  the  religious  differences 
in  Ireland  were,  of  course,  in  keeping  with  Whig 
traditions. 

Holland  House,  where  scepticism  prevailed,  was  far 
from  expressing  resentment  when  Blanco  White,  at  the 
expense  of  a  breach  with  the  Archbishop,  executed  his 
fourth  theological  somersault  and  landed  on  Unitarian- 
ism.  On  the  contrary,  as  has  already  been  mentioned, 
Lord  Holland  applauded  the  move.  Through  the  in- 
fluence of  that  powerful  friend  Blanco  White  obtained  a 
grant  of  ^300  from  the  Civil  List,  and  the  fortunes  of  his 
son,  Ferdinand,  were  pushed  in  the  army.  When  the 
news  of  Lord  Holland's  death  reached  him  at  Liverpool 
his  grief  was  intense,  and  he  poured  forth  his  soul  in 
letters  to  General  Fox  and  Allen.  Blanco  White  sur- 


328  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

vived  "  that  kind,  benevolent,  affectionate  man "  less 
than  a  year,  leaving  behind  him  much  controversial 
theology,  lively  descriptions  of  Spain  and  the  Spaniards 
in  the  "Letters  by  Don  Leucadio  Doblado,"  and  the 
resonant  poem,  "  Night  and  Death,"  which  the  partiality 
of  Coleridge  and  Frere  reckoned  as  the  finest  and  most 
grandly  conceived  sonnet  in  the  English  language.  It  is 
hardly  that. 

To  enumerate  all  the  distinguished  foreigners  who,  at 
one  time  or  another,  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  Holland 
House  would  be  to  write,  not  a  chapter,  but  a  volume. 
Mention  must  be  made,  however,  of  Calonne,  the  lively 
Minister  who  gambled  away  the  finances  of  France  in 
the  reign  of  Louis  XVI.  and  so  rendered  the  Revolution 
inevitable,  transacting  business  in  the  corner  of  a 
drawing-room  or  the  recess  of  a  window.  He  made 
London  his  city  of  refuge  on  two  occasions — the  first 
after  his  dismissal  by  the  French  Court,  the  second 
when,  having  returned  to  France,  at  the  peace  of  1802, 
he  was  exiled  a  second  time  for  caballing  with  Fouche 
and  the  Jacobins  to  supplant  Talleyrand  in  the  Ministry 
of  the  First  Consul.  "  Comment,  Calonne,  tu  aimes  done 
la  retrait  ? "  was  Talleyrand's  banter  after  the  order  of 
his  expulsion  had  been  signed.  After  a  short  banish- 
ment he  was  allowed  to  return,  and  died  within  a  few 
days  of  pleurisy  and  a  bad  doctor.  "  Tu  m'as  assassine," 
he  scribbled  when  he  could  no  longer  speak,  "  et  si  tu  es 
honnete  homme,  tu  renon$eras  a  la  medecine  pourjamais." 
The  old  regime  excelled  in  its  exits.  Lord  Holland,  who 
saw  much  of  Calonne  during  the  last  three  years  of  his 
first  residence  in  England,  asserts  that  his  contemporaries 
did  not  malign  him  when  they  admired  his  sprightliness 
and  perspicuousness  of  statement,  but  deplored  his 


FOREIGN   REFUGEES  AND  VISITORS        329 

levity,  imprudence,  untruthfulness,  and  almost  incredible 
ignorance. 

Another  refugee  who  visited  Holland  House  was  Louis 
Philippe,  Due  d'Orl£ans,  afterwards  King  of  the  French. 
This  was  presumably  while  he  was  living  at  Twickenham 
with  his  two  brothers,  the  Due  de  Montpensier  and  the 
Comte  de  Beaujolais,  waiting  for  a  turn  in  the  tide  of 
Royalism  which  the  establishment  of  the  Consulate 
seemed  to  have  indefinitely  deferred.  After  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1830  Lord  Holland  wrote,  in  answer  to  an  irate 
lady  whose  name  is  not  given  in  the  "  Foreign  Reminis- 
cences," a  thoroughgoing  defence  of  Louis  Philippe.  It 
does  justice  to  his  virtues  as  pere  de  famille,  but  it  is 
inclined  to  blink  the  tortuous  paths  by  which  he  reached 
the  throne. 

Etienne  Dumont,  the  Swiss  publicist,  was  a  more 
regular  frequenter  of  Holland  House.  Romilly,  as  has 
been  already  said,  made  his  acquaintance  at  Geneva  in 
1781,  and  five  years  later,  after  he  had  left  that  city 
through  becoming  involved  in  revolutionary  troubles,  he 
was  appointed  tutor,  on  Romilly's  recommendation,  to 
Lord  Henry  Petty.  At  Lansdowne  House  Dumont 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Whig  leaders,  and  formed 
the  second  great  friendship  of  his  life,  with  Jeremy 
Bentham.  In  1788  he  and  Romilly  went  to  Paris 
together,  and  there  he  met  Mirabeau.  Thus  began  the 
association  between  "  the  great  Frenchman  and  the  little 
Genevese,"  as  Carlyle  calls  them,  to  which  the  world 
owes  the  diverting  "  Souvenirs  sur  Mirabeau."  Dumont 
"  devilled,"  as  lawyers  phrase  it,  for  the  mighty  orator ; 
he  fetched  and  carried,  got  up  facts  for  his  speeches, 
and  possibly  wrote  some  of  the  reports  published  under 
his  name.  But  this  hod-work  by  no  means  justified 


330  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Dumont  in  persistently  representing  Mirabeau  as,  to 
quote  Carlyle,  "a  thing  set  in  motion  mainly  by  him 
[M.  Dumont]."  Lord  Holland,  discussing  the  point  in 
his  "  Foreign  Reminiscences,"  admits  that  his  "  excellent 
friend,"  though  veracious  and  fond  of  anecdotes,  was, 
by  his  own  admission,  a  very  unobservant  and,  by  the 
experience  of  others,  a  very  credulous  man.  Among  the 
subjects  with  which  he  cultivated  an  imperfect  acquain- 
tance was  evidently  his  own  position  in  the  scheme 
of  existence.  Yet  Macaulay  good-naturedly  wrote  of 
Dumont  in  the  Edinburgh  that  "he  was  not  solicitous  to 
proclaim  that  he  furnished  information,  arguments,  and 
eloquence  to  Mirabeau."  Not  at  the  time,  it  is  true  • 
secretaries  who  boast  that  their  employers  are  their 
creatures  are  apt  to  get  discharged.  But  he  certainly 
wished  posterity  to  believe  that  their  relations  in  theory 
were  reversed  in  fact. 

By  a  piece  of  singular  good  fortune  Dumont  was 
attached  to  Chauvelin's  mission,  and  so  reached  this 
country  before  the  revolutionary  hurricane  burst  in  its 
full  violence.  He  remained  "contemplating  from  a 
peaceful  spot  the  storm  in  which  he  would  have  been 
immersed "  until  1814,  living  chiefly  with  Lord  Lans- 
downe,  attending  the  King  of  Clubs,  enjoying  the  friend- 
ship of  Romilly  and  Horner,  and  worshipping  Bentham. 
In  common  with  James  Mill,  Francis  Place  and  other 
disciples  of  that  philosopher,  Dumont  loyally  drudged  at 
reducing  the  disjecta  membra  of  his  speculations  to  order 
and  lucidity.  To  his  industry  are  due  the  "  Theories  des 
Peines  et  des  Recompenses  "  and  other  works,  which  he 
brought  out  of  chaos  into  well-proportioned  speculations, 
without  suppressing  such  eminently  utilitarian  sugges- 
tions as  that  coiners  should  be  punished  by  being 


FOREIGN   REFUGEES  AND  VISITORS        331 

branded  on  the  cheek  with  hot  half-crowns,  and  women 
guilty  of  infanticide  by  being  compelled  to  wear  the 
leaden  images  of  their  murdered  babies  at  their  necks. 
Dumont  carried  his  learning  and  vivacity  into  society, 
though  Moore  caught  him  tripping  over  Bayle's  attitude 
towards  Catholicism,  and  was  a  much-appreciated  reader 
of  Corneille  and  Moliere.  Even  after  he  had  settled  at 
Geneva,  where  he  gullibly  swallowed  a  most  astounding 
narrative  of  Byronic  vice  and  retailed  it  to  the  indignant 
Moore,  he  paid  visits  to  his  old  friends  in  England.  He 
was  at  Bowood  in  1818,  and  again  in  1824,  three  years 
before  his  death,  bubbling  over  with  anecdote  and  infor- 
mation. A  learned  oddity,  indeed,  was  the  little  Genevese, 
with  his  beady  eyes  and  humorous  mouth. 

Another  Swiss  by  origin,  though  French  by  adoption 
and  Swedish  by  marriage,  captured  the  town  in  the 
summer  of  1813,  when  Madame  de  Stael,  in  the  course 
of  her  wanderings,  took  up  her  abode  in  George  Street, 
Hanover  Square.  In  her  train  came  her  eldest  son,  her 
daughter  Albertine,  and  an  unacknowledged  second  hus- 
band in  M.  de  Rocca,  the  young  French  cavalry  officer.1 
Her  second  son,  the  scapegrace  Albert,  was  killed  in  a 
duel,  fought  in  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  soon  after  her 
arrival,  and  Byron  grimly  predicted  that  she  would  write 
an  essay  on  the  incident.  Madame  de  Stael  refrained  from 
doing  so  ;  but  the  prompt  publication  of  her  book,  "  On 
Germany,"  made  her  the  literary  lioness  of  the  season. 
Besides,  as  the  victim  of  Napoleon's  persecutions,  she 
came  into  high  favour  with  the  Regent  and  the  Ministry, 
and  was,  in  consequence,  looked  upon  politically  with 
dubious  eyes  by  Byron  and  other  Whigs. 

1  For  Campbell's  gibe  see  p.  222. 


332  THE  HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

With  much  astuteness  Madame  de  Stael  selected 
Mackintosh,  who  had  excellent  French,  as  her  convoy, 
and  that  amiable  man  described  himself  as  "  ordered  with 
her  to  dinner,  as  one  orders  beans  and  bacon,"  to  the 
houses  of  all  the  Cabinet  Ministers.  Rogers  submitted 
to  her  sway  with  less  docility.  When  she  made  him  take 
her  to  Lansdowne  House  he  remarked  how  she  so 
placed  herself  that  she  could  display  the  beauty  of  her 
arms.  The  Dandies  unmercifully  quizzed  her  and  her 
daughter.  Still,  Madame  de  Stael's  success  was  pro- 
digious, even  though  Hallam  cynically  suggested  that 
she  might  find  English  curiosity  soon  yielding  to  English 
prejudice.  "  She  is,"  wrote  the  kindly  yet  discriminating 
Mackintosh,  "one  of  the  few  persons  who  surpass 
expectation  ;  she  has  every  sort  of  talent,  and  would  be 
universally  popular,  if,  in  society,  she  were  to  confine 
herself  to  her  inferior  talents — pleasantry,  anecdote,  and 
literature — which  are  so  much  more  suited  to  conversa- 
tion than  her  eloquence  and  genius."  Byron,  whom  she 
alternately  flattered  and  lectured — on  his  ignorance  of 
la  belle  passion  amongst  other  things — also  complained 
that  her  tongue  was  the  perpetual  motion,  and  that  she 
wrote  octavos  and  talked  folios,  though  in  later  years  he 
admitted  her  kindness  of  heart. 

Madame  de  Stael  certainly  gave  herself  astounding  airs, 
as  when  she  sent  for  Curran  and  cross-examined  him  as 
to  his  character,  which  left  a  good  deal  to  be  desired  in 
some  respects,  with  the  view  of  discovering  if  she  could 
afford  his  acquaintance.  Yet  Byron  asserted  that  she 
met  her  match  in  Sheridan,  with  whom,  however,  she 
seems  to  have  been  compelled  to  converse  in  English — a 
heavy  handicap.  Mackintosh  saw  Lord  Wellesley  fight  a 
good  battle  with  her  at  Holland  House  over  the  Swedish 


FOREIGN   REFUGEES  AND  VISITORS        333 

treaty,  parrying  her  eloquent  declamations  and  unseason- 
able discussions  with  politeness,  vivacity,  and  grace. 
Madame  de  Stael  took  a  house  at  Richmond  for  the  early 
autumn,  and  there  uttered  the  sententious  observation 
that  the  view  was  "  calme  et  animee ;  ce  qu'il  faut  etre,  et 
ce  que  je  ne  suis  pas."  She  then  went  a  triumphal  tour  to 
Bowood,  whence  Mackintosh  returned  early  in  November 
from  "  a  rather  fatiguing  week,"  the  party  including 
Romilly,  Dumont,  and  Ward  ;  and  to  Coombe  Wood, 
Lord  Liverpool's  place,  where  Croker  detected  her  pass- 
ing off  as  her  own  an  epigram  of  Camille  Desmoulins'.  By 
December  she  was  dining  at  Holland  House  again,  and, 
observed  Byron,  "  less  loquacious  than  heretofore."  She 
seems,  indeed,  to  have  slightly  outstayed  her  welcome, 
when  in  the  following  May  she  returned  to  Paris  in  the 
wake  of  the  Bourbons,  complaining,  on  her  part,  of  the 
nothingness  of  London  conversation — a  condemnation 
elaborated  in  her  "  Considerations  sur  1'Angleterre." 
Altogether,  it  is  possible  to  sympathise  with  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  who  made  no  attempt  to  see  Madame  de  Stael, 
and  even  with  stout  old  Jeremy  Bentham,  who  called  her 
a  "  trumpery  magpie  "  and  flatly  refused  her  admittance 
to  the  Hermitage. 

Rogers  made  much  of  Americans,  and  it  was  prob- 
ably through  him  that  distinguished  statesmen  and 
diplomatists  like  Van  Buren,  Daniel  Webster  and 
Monroe  visited  Holland  House.  They  seem,  however, 
to  have  been  little  more  than  birds  of  passage.  Wash- 
ington Irving  was  a  more  regular  guest  during  the 
three  years  of  his  stay  at  the  American  Embassy,  in 
1829  and  onwards,  as  Secretary  of  Legation.  "The 
Sketch-book,"  including  as  it  did  the  immortal  Rip  van 
Winkel,  had  by  that  time  made  his  name  a  household 


334  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

word  in  this  country  ;  Oxford  honoured  him  with  the 
honorary  degree  of  LL.D.,  and  the  Royal  Society  of 
Literature  with  its  gold  medal.  Moore  at  one  time 
considered  him  too  American,  which  was  unkind,  as 
Irving  took  some  trouble  about  negotiating  the  sale  of 
the  "Life  of  Byron"  in  the  United  States. 

George  Ticknor,  the  historian  of  Spanish  literature, 
was  a  closer  intimate.  In  1819,  and  again  in  the 
thirties,  that  accomplished  and  modest  man  spent  many 
evenings  at  Holland  House.  He  did  not  at  first  like 
Lady  Holland,  but  they  became  friends  after  a  passage 
of  arms,  in  which  Ticknor  countered  her  assertion  that 
New  England  was  originally  colonised  by  convicts  by 
saying  that  some  of  her  family,  the  Vassalls,  were  early 
settlers  in  Massachusetts.  His  impressions  of  the  circle 
do  not  vary  greatly  from  those  that  may  be  gathered  from 
other  sources,  except  that  he  pays  Brougham  the  un- 
expected compliment  of  attributing  to  him  kindness  of 
heart,  and  describes  him  as  commonplace  on  common 
topics,  but  original  when  excited.  He  relates,  however, 
with  some  surprise,  that  Lord  Melbourne  commented 
freely  on  the  oratorical  tendencies  of  his  Sovereign, 
William  IV. — fourteen  toasts  and  a  quantity  of  speeches 
at  one  dinner.  The  easygoing  conduct  of  public 
business  also  struck  him  :  the  Bill  for  admitting  Dis- 
senters to  the  Universities  was  down  for  the  following 
Tuesday,  but  as  Lady  Jersey  had  a  grand  party  she 
would  probably  succeed  in  getting  it  postponed.  In 
1857  Ticknor  revisited  Holland  House  under  its  new 
ownership,  and  found  it  much  altered  and  made  very 
luxurious,  but  he  missed  things  he  would  have  been 
glad  to  see  in  the  library,  the,  dining-room,  and  the 
drawing-room. 


CHAPTER  XXV 
CONTINENTAL  DIPLOMATISTS 

Metternich— Pozzo  di  Borgo  and  others— Van  der  Weyer — 
Princess  Lieven — A  " tres grande  dame" — Her  intimacies — The  eyes 
and  ears  of  an  Embassy — The  Lievens'  recall — Madame  de  Lieven's 
last  years — Talleyrand  at  Holland  House — His  appearance  and  con- 
versation— His  affection  for  England — Count  Montrond — A  salaried 
clubman— His  relations  with  Talleyrand — Count  Flahault — A  Paris 
salon — A  figure  of  the  Second  Empire — Guizot's  mission — His 
stories  of  Lady  Holland — Holland  House  and  the  Syrian  crisis. 

"  I  ^HE  year  of  Madame  de  StaeTs  advent,  1813,  also 
JL  witnessed  the  arrival  of  Metternich — the  profound, 
as  Lord  Beaconsfield  called  him,  the  reactionary, 
as  others.  The  Austrian  statesman  had  just  witnessed 
the  signature  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  and  came  to  sound 
the  British  Government  on  the  negotiations  about  to  be 
opened  at  Vienna.  He  attended  the  Czar  and  the  King 
of  Prussia,  and  brought  to  the  Prince  Regent,  who  had 
personally  invited  him,  the  excuses  of  the  Emperor 
Francis.  He  thus  took  part  in  the  premature  celebra- 
tions of  peace,  and  renewed  an  acquaintance  with  the 
Whig  aristocracy  formed  when,  as  a  young  man  of 
twenty-one,  he  had  visited  England  in  1794.  On  that 
occasion  Metternich  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Prince  of  Wales  was  one  of  the  handsomest  men  he 

335 


336  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

had  ever  seen,  and  most  agreeable,  but  that  he  kept 
very  bad  company.  His  "M6moires"  are  reticent  as 
to  the  impressions  derived  from  his  second  visit,  but 
he  cannot  have  had  much  in  common  with  the  Whigs. 
In  spite  of  hospitality  received,  he  refused  Lord  Holland 
admission  to  Austrian  territory  in  1824  as  "a  person 
notoriously  of  very  bad  sentiments,  and  known  to  be 
an  enthusiastic  adherent  of  Radicalism." 

The  continental  diplomatists  who,  at  one  time  or 
another,  made  their  entree  at  Holland  House  may,  for 
the  most  part,  be  briefly  dismissed.  Among  them  were 
Count  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  the  little  Corsican,  who  carried 
on  a  family  vendetta  against  Napoleon  by  entering 
Russian  service  and  labouring  untiringly  to  bring  about 
his  overthrow,  and  who,  after  several  stays  in  this 
country,  was  Ambassador  here  from  1835  to  1839  ;  the 
Duke  of  Palmella,  the  witty  Portuguese,  who  upheld 
the  constitutionalist  cause  against  absolutism  as  repre- 
sented by  Dom  Miguel ;  and  Sylvain  van  de  Weyer, 
the  first  Minister  sent  by  independent  Belgium  to  this 
country.  The  last  of  the  three,  a  cultivated  man  of 
letters,  it  is  worth  recording,  put  down  Lady  Holland 
with  some  decision.  When  the  King  of  the  Belgians 
was  new  to  the  throne  he  was  dining  at  Holland  House. 
"  How  is  Leopold  ?  "  asked  Lady  Holland  with  her  usual 
abruptness.  "  Does  your  ladyship  mean  the  King  of  the 
Belgians  ?  "  "I  have  heard,"  she  rejoined,  "  of  Flemings, 
Hainaulters,  and  Brabanters ;  but  Belgians  are  new  to 
me."  She  was  calmly  referred,  as  a  woman  of  wide 
reading,  to  Caesar's  "  Commentaries."  Van  de  Weyer, 
says  Hayward  in  an  obituary  essay  on  the  diplomatist, 
became  an  established  favourite  at  Holland  House. 

Princess  Lieven,  the  wife  of  the  Russian  Ambassador, 


PRINCESS    LIEVEN 

FROM    THE   MINIATURE    BY    UPTON    IN    THE    POSSESSION    OK 
SIR   J.  G.  TOLLEMACIIE   SINCLAIR 


CONTINENTAL   DIPLOMATISTS  337 

identified  herself  more  completely  with  English  society 
than  any  of  these.  Her  husband,  a  quiet,  laborious 
man,  whose  nickname,  "  Vraiment,"  seems  to  stamp  him, 
appears  to  have  immersed  himself  in  diplomatic  business, 
and  to  have  allowed  her  to  go  her  own  way.  Greville 
ungallantly  gives  a  list  of  her  lovers,  Palmella  among 
them,  adding  that  she  never  seriously  attached  herself 
to  any  one.  The  Lievens,  on  the  evidence  of  Lady 
Granville,  understood  one  another  fairly  well,  and  when 
the  Prince  died  at  Rome  in  1839  she  lamented  him 
on  her  knees  in  torrents  of  tears.  But  her  affections 
were  centred  in  her  children,  of  whom  her  son  Paul 
became  very  popular. 

The  Lievens  arrived  at  the  Russian  Embassy  in  1812, 
Pozzo  di  Borgo  having  paved  the  way  for  their  recep- 
tion, at  a  moment  when  friendly  relations  with  Russia, 
interrupted  temporarily  by  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit,  were 
about  to  be  renewed.  No  cleverer  female  politician  ever 
made  her  drawing-room  the  manoeuvring  ground  of 
international  affairs  than  Madame  de  Lieven,  and  none 
was  more  fitted  by  nature  and  training  for  the  task. 
She  was,  writes  the  partial  Greville,  "  a  ires  grande  dame, 
with  abilities  of  a  very  fine  order,  great  tact  and  finesse, 
and  taking  a  boundless  pleasure  in  the  society  of  the 
great  world  and  in  political  affairs  of  every  sort."  As 
such  she  almost  immediately  took  her  place  in  the  cream 
of  the  cream  of  English  society,  figured  at  Almack's,  and 
was  frequently  a  guest  of  George  IV.  at  the  Pavilion. 
Her  closest  friend  was  Lady  Cowper,  afterwards  Lady 
Palmerston ;  and  therefore  the  ill-natured  took  upon 
themselves  to  say  that  she  was  the  making  of  Lord 
Palmerston,  but  the  insinuation  had  nothing  behind  it. 

The  externalities  of  Madame  de  Lieven  are  easily  repro- 
z 


338  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

duced.  She  was  fascinating  and  vivacious  rather  than 
a  beauty,  very  thin,  an  accomplished  pianist,  illiterate, 
except  for  one  book,  the  "Letters  of  Madame  de 
S6vign6,"  and  devoted  to  whist.  Lady  Granville  reports 
various  scraps  of  her  conversation  ;  drollery  rather  than 
epigram  seems  to  have  been  her  strong  point,  and  she 
could  suppress  bores  with  good  breeding.  Delighting 
in  the  game  and  devoured  by  political  curiosity,  she 
formed  confidential  intimacies  with  the  leading  English 
statesmen,  from  Castlereagh  to  Lord  Aberdeen,  and  kept 
up  a  vigorous  correspondence  with  several  of  them. 
Greville  warmly  defends  her  from  the  charge  of  making 
mischief,  declaring  that  she  was  too  much  attached  to 
this  country  to  abuse  her  position. 

The  facts  remain  that  Madame  de  Lieven  acted  as 
the  eyes  and  ears  of  the  Russian  Embassy,  and  that 
the  information  she  extracted  from  Lord  Grey — his 
babbling,  as  she  called  it — and  others  was  regularly 
communicated  to  the  Imperial  Court  and  the  Chan- 
cellor Nesselrode.  More  than  that,  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  and  Lord  Palmerston,  neither  of  them 
suspicious  men,  accused  her  of  trying  to  upset  them ; 
and  her  published  correspondence  shows  this  much, 
that  when  she  discovered  the  first  of  them  to  be 
hostile  to  the  claims  of  Greece,  she  let  no  chances  of 
ridiculing  his  Government  slip  by  her.  With  similar 
motives  she  constantly  praised  Lord  Holland ;  thus, 
in  1828,  she  wrote  that  "he  would  be  glad  to  see  the 
Emperor  arrive  at  Constantinople,  that  he  might  do 
as  he  liked  with  it,  that  we  might  have  a  port  on  the 
Mediterranean — in  a  word,  the  only  difficulty  is  to 
restrain  him."  The  recall  of  the  Lievens  came  with 
some  abruptness  in  1834.  They  had  come  to  sharp 


CONTINENTAL   DIPLOMATISTS  339 

issues  with  Palmerston,  of  whom  Madame  de  Lieven 
wrote  that  "  he  would  never  be  more  than  a  schoolboy, 
and  not  brilliant  as  that,"  over  Russian  designs  in  the 
Levant  and  elsewhere  ;  and  the  appointment  of  Sir 
Stratford  Canning,  whom  the  Czar  Nicholas  hated,  as 
Ambassador  to  St.  Petersburg,  gave  a  finishing  touch 
to  their  discomfiture.  She  was  rejoicing  over  the 
awkward  position  in  which  the  French  Ambassador, 
Talleyrand,  "an  unprincipled  rascal,"  was  placed  owing 
to  the  antagonism  of  the  British  Foreign  Secretary, 
only  a  few  days  before  they  were  summoned  to  St. 
Petersburg,  nominally  to  fill  appointments  in  the 
Imperial  household. 

Madame  de  Lieven  submitted  with  barely  concealed 
mortification  ;  but  the  death  of  her  two  youngest 
children  soon  rendered  St.  Petersburg  insupportable 
to  her,  and  she  established  herself  in  Paris,  where  she 
spent  the  remainder  of  her  days  in  social  and  political 
alliance  with  Guizot,  maintaining  correspondence  the 
while  with  her  friends  in  England.  A  difficult  character 
to  define  in  a  phrase,  Madame  de  Lieven  may  best  be 
described,  perhaps,  as  a  survival  of  the  political  woman 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  sent  abroad 
to  lie  for  her  country.  She  did  it  very  well  up  to 
a  certain  point. 

Greville  declares  that,  when  Talleyrand  took  up  the 
appointment  of  French  Ambassador  in  London  after 
the  Revolution  of  July  had  placed  Louis  Philippe  on 
the  throne,  Madame  de  Lieven  was  at  first  hostile  to 
him,  but  soon  yielded  to  the  charm  of  his  society  and 
that  of  his  niece,  Madame  de  Dino.  But  her  corre- 
spondence shows  that  her  amity  was  only  skin-deep ; 
she  accused  him,  amongst  other  things,  of  picking  up 


340  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Cabinet  secrets  at  Holland  House.  Talleyrand,  at  any 
rate,  made  himself  thoroughly  at  home  by  the  fireside 
of  his  friend  of  nearly  forty  years'  standing — for  Lord 
Holland  first  made  his  acquaintance  in  the  course  of 
a  visit  to  Paris  in  1791,  when  Talleyrand  was  still 
Bishop  of  Autun.  During  his  residence  at  the  French 
Embassy  Talleyrand  spent  his  evenings  at  Holland 
House,  whenever  Madame  de  Dino  repaired  to  France, 
staying  as  long  as  they  would  let  him.  The  company 
looked  on  while  he  devoured  his  single  meal  in  the 
day,  when,  Sir  Henry  Holland  tells  us,  "  wholly 
absorbed  in  the  pleasure  of  eating,  he  spoke  little 
during  dinner  and  little  during  the  early  stages  of 
digestion." 

Talleyrand  must  have  been  a  formidable  person  to 
meet.  Creevey,  never  overburdened  with  modesty, 
shrank  from  the  encounter,  and  even  Sydney  Smith 
and  Macaulay  seem  to  have  stood  in  some  awe  of 
him.  His  appearance  was  weird,  what  with  his  club 
foot,  his  head  shrunk  between  his  shoulders,  his  cork- 
screw curls,  piercing  eyes,  and  masklike  face.  Lady 
Granville  described  him  as  gliding  by  her  at  a  public 
reception  like  a  lizard.  His  talk,  too,  was  difficult  to 
catch  in  his  later  days,  owing  to  a  habit  of  pumping 
up  his  words  from  the  bottom  of  his  stomach.  But 
for  good  listeners  he  was  unequalled.  "  By  a  happy 
combination,"  writes  Lord  Holland  in  his  "  Foreign 
Reminiscences,"  "  of  neatness  in  language  and  ease  and 
suavity  of  manner  with  archness  and  sagacity  of  thought, 
his  sarcasms  assumed  a  garb  at  once  so  courtly  and  so 
careless,  that  they  often  diverted  almost  as  much  as  they 
could  mortify  even  their  immediate  objects."  That 
opinion  might  conceivably  have  been  modified  had  he 


CONTINENTAL  DIPLOMATISTS  341 

known  that  when  on  leave  of  absence  in  France 
Talleyra'nd  said  of  him  :  "  C'est  la  bienveillance  meme, 
tnais  la  bienveillance  la  plus  perturbatrice,  qu'on  a 
jamas  vue."  Of  Lady  Holland  he  remarked,  "  Elle  est 
toute  assertion,  tnais  quand  on  demande  la  preuve,  c'est 
la  son  secret."  Another  anecdote,  with  which  she  was 
concerned,  relates  how  to  please  her  Talleyrand  dined 
at  a  certain  London  house.  His  reward  was  that  the 
lobster  sauce  was  upset  on  the  centre  of  his  head, 
exactly  where  the  long  white  locks  were  parted. 
Talleyrand  did  not  move  a  muscle  while  the  servant 
was  scraping  the  sauce  up  with  a  spoon,  and  only 
remarked  on  leaving,  "//  n'y  a  rien  si  bourgeois  que 

cette  maison  B ." 

Still,  Talleyrand  should  not  be  judged  by  an  occa- 
sional asperity,  more  especially  as  his  powers  of  sarcasm 
were  unlimited.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  was 
much  attached  to  his  English  friends,  and  enjoyed  the 
consideration  paid  to  him  in  society  as  the  Nestor  of 
European  diplomacy.  Though  he  chafed  under  Lord 
Palmerston's  offhand  manner,  he  was  deeply  grateful 
when,  in  reply  to  a  blundering  personal  attack  made 
upon  him  by  Lord  Londonderry  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  who  was  leader  of  the  Opposi- 
tion, joined  Lord  Holland  and  Lord  Goderich,  who  were 
members  of  the  Government,  in  repelling  the  assault. 
The  prints  of  the  day  represent  him  as  a  well-known 
figure  in  the  Park,  and  he  frequented  the  British  Museum. 
By  the  public  at  large  he  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as 
an  ogre,  and  the  papers  told  strange  stories  of  how  his 
pulse  intermitted  at  the  sixth  beat,  whereby  he  was  enabled 
to  thrive  on  two  hours'  sleep,  and  how  his  bed  had  a  deep 
slope  in  the  middle,  rising  equally  at  the  head  and  the 


342  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

feet.  His  mission  came  to  an  end,  at  his  own  request,  in 
November,  1834,  and  bickerings  with  'Lord  Palmerston 
were  probably  a  contributing  cause,  though  his  guiding 
reasons  were  age  and  infirmity.  He  had  acute  differences 
with  the  Foreign  Secretary  over  the  Belgian  question  ; 
but  when  they  put  their  hands  to  the  Quadruple  Treaty, 
guaranteeing  Spain  and  Portugal  from  external  inter- 
ference, each  imagined  that  he  had  outwitted  the  other. 

Talleyrand  was  inseparable  from  his  crony  and  foil, 
Count  Montrond,  a  survival,  like  himself,  of  the  old 
regime.  That  wonderful  individual  was  not  unfrequently 
to  be  seen  at  Holland  House,  though  Creevey,  who 
recorded  his  appearances,  could  never  quite  succeed  in 
spelling  his  name  correctly.  "  Qui  ne  I'aimerait  pas  f  " 
mused  Talleyrand.  "  //  est  ci  vicieux."  The  compliment 
is  reversed  in  another  version,  and  it  applied,  no  doubt, 
with  about  equal  truth  to  either  worthy.  Montrond  was 
a  typical  roue  of  pre-Revolutionary  days,  witty,  cynical, 
an  epicure  and  an  exquisite  in  dress  and  manner.  The 
young  men  of  Paris  and  London  formed  themselves  on 
him,  and  a  caricature  by  Count  d'Orsay  has  preserved  for 
us  the  immensity  of  his  collars  and  the  elegant  set  of  his 
coat,  with  its  obvious  suggestion  of  stays.  The  sources 
of  his  income,  other  than  cards,  were  a  mystery  after  he 
had  devoured  his  wife's  fortune,  and  the  hypercritical 
declared  that  he  called  in  skill  of  an  unorthodox  kind  to 
strengthen  his  chances  at  the  tables.  "  C est  possible,"  was 
Montrond's  answer  when  accused  of  cheating,  "  mais  je 
riaime  pas  qu'on  me  le  dise,"  and  threw  the  cards  in  his 
critic's  face.  A  duel  naturally  ensued,  and  Montrond  was 
left  for  dead  on  the  field.  "  //  vit  de  son  mart,"  said 
Talleyrand. 

After  the   Revolution   of   July   Montrond   accepted  a 


(0    sTtn 


'*— V         '**'     •*"  ^  If  C<_  V 

COUNT   MONTROND 


CONTINENTAL  DIPLOMATISTS  343 

pension  of  20,000  francs  a  year  from  Louis  Philippe, 
the  condition  being  that  he  should  praise  the  Citizen 
King  at  the  clubs  and  in  England.  As  he  was  on 
intimate  terms  with  Lord  Sefton,  Lord  Alvanley,  and 
other  social  lights,  it  is  possible  that  he  earned  his 
salary.  He  formed  one  of  the  dinner-party  of  recon- 
ciliation given  by  Lord  Sefton  when  Brougham  accepted 
the  Great  Seal,  and  raised  a  laugh  by  asking  the  Chan- 
cellor when  he  was  going  to  mount  his  bag  of  wool. 
Not  onlv  was  Montrond  thoroughly  at  home  on  the 
pavement  of  St.  James's  Street,  but  his  confidences  to 
Tom  Raikes  show,  too,  that  when  primed  with  infor- 
mation from  Talleyrand,  he  was  an  effective  agent  for 
the  conveyance  of  a  political  hint.  The  Prince  de 
B£nevent  probably  valued  Montrond  more,  however, 
as  his  guest  at  Valenfaye,  with  Motteux,  the  gourmand, 
as  a  frequent  third.  Besides  being  witty  himself,  he  was 
the  cause  of  wit  in  others.  Unfortunately,  the  most 
famous  repartee  attributed  to  Talleyrand  at  Montrond's 
expense — "  Deja  f  "  in  reply  to  his"Ah,je  sens  les  tour- 
ments  de  Venfer" — has  been  traced  to  Bouvard,  the 
physician  of  Cardinal  de  Retz.  But  authenticity  appears 
to  attach  to  the  story  that  as  Montrond  lay  on  the  floor 
in  an  epileptic  fit,  scratching  the  carpet  with  his  hands, 
his  benign  host  remarked,  "  C'est  qu'il  me  parait,  qu'il 
veut  absolument  descendre."  Such  were  their  peculiar 
relations,  and  it  remains  to  add  that  Montrond,  who 
opposed  Talleyrand's  deathbed  reconciliation  with  the 
Church,  himself  made  a  most  edifying  end.  He  had 
never  made  jokes  against  religion,  he  explained  to  the 
Abb6  Petitot,  because  he  had  always  lived  in  good 
company. 
Another  protege  of  Talleyrand,  and,  some  said,  a  very 


344  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

near  relation,  was  Count  Flahault,  the  son  of  the  talented 
lady  better  known  as  Madame  de  Souza,  and  the  author 
of  the  once  popular  romance  "Adele  de  Senanges." 
He,  too,  like  Montrond,  was  a  citizen  of  two  countries. 
An  emigre,  as  a  child  with  his  mother,  he  received  his 
early  education  in  England,  and  returned  to  France  to 
become  a  favourite  officer  of  Napoleon,  whom  he  accom- 
panied on  most  of  his  campaigns,  that  of  Waterloo 
included.  The  Bourbons  exiled  him  from  France,  and 
the  Tory  Government  were  disposed  to  exclude  him  from 
England  under  the  Alien  Act.  He  was  permitted,  how- 
ever, to  evade  its  provisions  by  the  purchase  of  shares  in 
a  Scots  bank.  A  hero  of  romance  in  Whig  eyes,  hand- 
some and  gifted  with  a  beautiful  voice,  M.  de  Flahault 
won,  in  1817,  the  hand  of  an  heiress,  Miss  Mercer,  who 
eventually  became  Lady  Keith  in  her  own  right.  She 
was  the  girl  whom  Byron  remembered  with  gratitude  as 
having  stood  up  for  him  when  the  town  was  ringing  with 
the  news  of  his  separation  from  his  wife.  The  Flahaults 
established  themselves  in  Scotland,  where  he  became 
proficient  in  the  management  of  an  estate,  though  his 
drinking  capacity  fell  short  of  the  local  standard. 

In  1827  the  Flahaults  made  Paris  their  headquarters, 
and  Lady  Granville  describes  with  some  humour  the 
difficulties  of  the  staid  Madame  de  Flahault  in  holding 
a  salon  for  ladies  who  thought  it  an  outrage  that  she 
should  be  on  such  excellent  terms  with  her  husband. 
The  discerning  Raikes  declared  that  the  house  showed 
a  happy  combination  of  French  and  English  habits, 
and  that,  though  the  Count  was  no  longer  young,  few 
people  were  endowed  with  such  advantages  of  manner 
and  person  or  so  captivating  in  their  address.  He 
made  the  best  of  two  worlds,  since  he  accepted  the 


CONTINENTAL  DIPLOMATISTS  345 

post  of  equerry  to  the  Due  d'Orl£ans  and  a  diplomatic 
appointment  from  the  Monarchy  of  July,  while  he 
displayed  his  fidelity  to  the  Napoleonic  tradition  by 
acting  as  guardian  to  the  young  Due  de  Morny,  the 
natural  son  of  Queen  Hortense.  During  the  Syrian 
crisis  of  1840  he  appears  to  have  supplied  Louis 
Philippe  with  useful  information  as  to  the  state  of 
public  feeling  in  London.  He  made  Holland  House 
his  headquarters  during  this  flying  visit,  and  only  left 
it  a  day  or  two  before  Lord  Holland's  death.  Count 
Flahault  became  one  of  the  diplomatic  mainstays  of 
the  Second  Empire,  and  in  that  capacity  was  for  a 
brief  period  French  Ambassador  to  the  English  Court 
and  the  recipient  of  a  grave  warning  from  Palmerston. 
His  death  was  removed  by  a  few  days  only  from  the 
downfall  of  Napoleon  III.  at  Sedan. 

Guizot  has  left  a  faithful  description  of  his  short  but 
important  mission  in  the  fifth  volume  of  his  Memoirs. 
As  a  student  of  English  history  and  social  phenomena 
he  was  familiar  with  the  outside  show  of  our  life 
when  he  landed  at  Dover  on  February  27,  1840. 
Hertford  House  was  then  the  French  Embassy ;  and 
while  driving  to  it  he  was  struck  by  the  monotony 
and  insignificance  of  London  buildings,  though  he 
admitted  that  the  whole  impressed  by  its  vastness,  and 
that  neatness  prevailed  though  taste  was  absent.  He 
discovered  the  aristocracy  to  be  subservient  to  popular 
opinion,  and  concerned  rather  with  following  than 
directing  it.  He  was  struck  by  the  constraint  of  the 
Court,  where,  by  the  way,  he  committed,  to  the  con- 
sternation of  Greville,  the  blunder  of  insisting  on  being 
placed  next  Queen  Victoria  at  dinner.  But  he  was 
heartily  received  by  the  Hollands  in  South  Street ;  and 


346  THE  HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

after  their  return  to  Kensington  he  records  his  delight 
in  the  historic  associations  of  the  Gothic  building,  the 
literary  wealth  of  the  library,  and  the  various  interests 
of  the  portraits.  Lord  Clarendon  and  Luttrell  were 
asked  to  meet  him,  and  after  the  conversation  had 
turned  on  the  great  French  writers  and  orators  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  it  was  concerned  with  Fox  and 
his  contemporaries,  whom  Lord  Holland  imitated  with 
much  spirit. 

Guizot  portrays  his  host  as  combining  in  himself  the 
ideas  of  an  English  Whig  and  a  French  Liberal,  a 
European  intelligence  and  a  Saxon  physiognomy. 
Lady  Holland  he  regarded  as  much  more  English  than 
her  husband ;  she  was  often  imperious,  sometimes 
gracious  ;  she  was  cultivated,  and,  though  essentially 
an  egoist,  abounded  in  polite  attentions.  She  set  her- 
self to  correct  his  English  ;  and  when  he  quoted  the 
proverb,  "  Hell  is  paved  with  good  intentions,"  she  in- 
formed him,  in  friendly  rebuke,  that  it  was  not  good 
tone  to  mention  that  region  except  in  quoting  Milton — 
epic  poetry  was  the  only  excuse.  The  Ambassador  made 
his  way  to  Lady  Holland's  good  graces  by  placing 
Talleyrand's  chef,  the  celebrated  Louis,  at  the  head  of 
his  cuisine ;  he  imperilled  his  position  by  keeping 
dinner  waiting  until  half-past  eight  for  Lord  and  Lady 
Palmerston.  She  passed  through  the  three  stages  of 
bad  temper,  genuine  discomfort,  and  fainting ;  finally 
she  had  to  be  helped  to  table  by  Lord  Duncannon. 
Guizot  illustrated  her  superstitiousness  by  a  story  that 
she  warned  Canning  in  1827  against  going  to  stay 
with  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  at  Chiswick,  because  Fox 
had  died  in  the  house.  Canning  himself  was  struck 
by  the  coincidence,  and  asked  her  to  keep  it  a  secret. 


CONTINENTAL  DIPLOMATISTS  347 

"And    he    died    at    Chiswick,"   was    the    triumphantly 
logical  conclusion. 

Guizot  passes  the  society  of  Holland  House  under 
rapid  and  discriminating  review.  Macaulay  talked  his 
books,  but  brilliantly  ;  Sydney  Smith  was  rather  over- 
powering and  given  to  jesting  at  his  cloth ;  Hallam, 
softened  by  age  and  domestic  losses,  was  a  pleasant 
and  instructive  companion ;  Jeffrey  vigorous  but  inclined 
to  despair  of  the  times.  He  confirms  to  the  full  the 
complaints  of  Palmerston  that  Holland  House  made 
no  disguise  of  its  sentiments  during  the  Syrian  crisis, 
though  a  member  of  the  Cabinet — possibly  Macaulay — 
warned  him,  more  diplomatically  than  truthfully,  that 
such  indiscretions  must  not  be  taken  as  evidence  of 
Ministerial  differences.  Though  Guizot  thus  obtained 
considerable  inkling  of  what  was  going  on  behind  the 
scenes,  his  representations  had  made  no  impression  on 
the  resolute  Foreign  Secretary,  when  he  was  recalled 
in  October  to  succeed  Thiers  in  the  troubled  position 
of  Prime  Minister  of  France.  A  few  days  previously 
he  had  heard  of  Lord  Holland's  death,  and  noted  the 
impassiveness  with  which  the  news  was  outwardly  re- 
ceived by  his  friends  of  thirty  years'  standing.  The 
English  were  always  a  puzzle  to  Guizot,  deeply  though 
he  pondered  on  their  history. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 
THE  GREY  AND   MELBOURNE   MINISTRIES 

Old  and  young  Whigs — Spring- Rice  and  Abercromby — Lord 
Duncannon — A  healer  of  differences — The  Duke  of  Richmond — 
Lord  Althorp's  early  years — His  rooms  in  the  Albany — The  leader- 
ship of  the  House — An  indispensable  man — Neighbour  and  country 
gentleman — Lord  John  Russell  and  Holland  House — His  literary 
efforts — The  coming  man — The  Reform  Bills — Lord  John  upsets  the 
coach — As  leader  of  the  House — Whig  legislation — Lord  John  at 
home — The  Fox  Club — John  George  Lambton — "  Radical  Jack  " — 
"  A  victim  of  temper" — A  mission  to  St.  Petersburg — The  Edinburgh 
banquet — The  mission  to  Canada — Brougham's  revenge — The  spoilt 
child  of  society. 

THE  last  ten  years  of  Lord  Holland's  life  almost 
coincided  with  the  period  of  Whig  ascendancy, 
before  Peel  came  to  his  own  in  1841.  His 
house  was  the  Ministerial  headquarters,  and  Lady 
Holland's  divorce  having  been  long  since  condoned, 
the  Whig  peeresses  frequented  her  receptions.  To 
give  its  history  during  that  full  decade  would  be  to 
re-tell  the  familiar  and  not  particularly  inspiring  tale  of 
the  Grey  arid  two  Melbourne  Administrations.  Many 
of  the  Whigs,  besides,  had  long  borne  the  burden  of 
the  day  in  Opposition,  and  have  figured  accordingly 
in  the  earlier  chapters  of  this  work,  while  some,  like 
Lord  Clarendon  and  Labouchere,  were  only  beginning 

348 


THE  GREY  AND   MELBOURNE   MINISTRIES    349 

to  assume  prominence,  and  their  careers  lie  outside 
the  scope  of  this  book.  Others  can  be  dismissed  with 
brevity,  as  comparatively  unimportant  except  for  their 
membership  of  a  compact  political  organisation. 

Spring-Rice,  for  example,  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
won  a  prominent  position  for  himself  on  the  page  of 
history.  He  had  considerable  grasp  of  detail,  and 
made  an  efficient  Secretary  to  the  Treasury.  Gifted 
with  a  fluent  tongue,  he  was  sometimes  put  up  to 
answer  O'Connell,  and  stated  the  anti-Repeal  case  with 
much  ability  but  more  prolixity.  As  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  in  Lord  Melbourne's  second  Ministry, 
he  failed  to  grapple  resolutely  with  a  series  of  deficits, 
and  rashly  introduced  the  penny  postage  at  a  moment 
when  the  revenue  was  unequal  to  an  additional  strain. 
Spring-Rice  incurred  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  Radicals, 
and  after  the  session  of  1839  he  was  persuaded  to 
accept  a  peerage  with  the  Comptrollership  of  the  Exche- 
quer as  a  consolation  prize.  Abercromby  who,  thanks 
to  his  popularity  with  the  extreme  Whigs,  was  pre- 
ferred to  Spring-Rice  for  the  Speakership  in  1835,  was 
an  equally  colourless  politician.  As  "  Young  Cole,"  a 
nickname  borrowed  from  the  drama,  Creevey  heaped 
ridicule  on  him  in  conjunction  with  Tierney,  "Old 
Cole."  Abercromby  was,  it  would  seem,  a  bustling  Whig 
barrister,  who  won  his  way  to  the  chair  less  by  ability 
than  by  a  Scot's  capacity  for  turning  opportunities  to 
account.  He  proved  a  weak  Speaker  when  passions 
ran  high,  though  equal  to  the  ordinary  routine  of 
business. 

Lord  Duncannon,  Lord  Melbourne's  brother-in-law, 
was  a  different  kind  of  man,  less  pushing,  more  trust- 
worthy. He  was  afflicted  with  a  catch  in  his  speech, 


350  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

and  so  cut  no  figure  in  debate.  But  his  knowledge  of 
men  made  him  a  successful  Opposition  whip,  though  in 
"  Tommy "  Holmes  he  had  a  most  astute  and  un- 
scrupulous opponent.  When  the  Whigs  came  into 
office  Lord  Duncannon's  services  were  ignored,  but  he 
did  not  desert  his  party,  and  formed  one  of  the  committee 
of  four  which  drew  up  the  Reform  Bill.  In  1832, 
however,  he  became  Chief  Commissioner  of  Woods 
and  Forests,  and  in  the  following  year  was  admitted 
to  the  Cabinet. 

"  Nothing  could  be  done  without  Duncannon,"  wrote 
Greville,  when  he  died.  He  arranged  difficulties  and 
adjusted  rival  pretensions.  King  William,  though  he 
hated  the  rest  of  the  Whigs,  held  Duncannon  in 
regard;  and  another  formidable  personage  with  whom, 
by  sheer  straightforwardness  of  dealing,  he  contrived  to 
keep  on  good  terms  was  O'Connell.  Lord  Duncannon, 
writes  Sir  Denis  Le  Marchant,  "was  the  directing 
spirit,  if  not  the  soul  and  mainstay,  of  Lord  Mel- 
bourne's Irish  policy,  the  chief  title  of  that  Adminis- 
tration to  credit  from  posterity."  As  Privy  Seal  he 
contrived  to  carry  Bills  through  the  House  of  Lords 
without  making  the  semblance  of  a  speech.  Residing 
for  a  good  part  of  the  year  on  his  well-managed 
Irish  estates,  he  undertook  the  Lord- Lieutenancy,  when 
the  Whigs  came  back  to  power  in  1846,  with  universal 
approval.  He  died  at  his  post,  his  days  having  un- 
doubtedly been  shortened  by  the  Irish  famine,  and, 
when  almost  too  weak  to  be  intelligible,  dictated  a 
letter  to  Lord  John  Russell,  the  Prime  Minister,  warn- 
ing him  of  the  dangers  that  would  confront  his 
successor. 

Before  we  pass  to  the  three  prominent  members  of 


THE  GREY  AND  MELBOURNE   MINISTRIES    351 

the  Grey  Administration — Lord  Althorp,  Lord  John 
Russell,  and  Lord  Durham — a  sentence  or  two  may  be 
devoted  to  the  fifth  Duke  of  Richmond,  the  Post- 
master-General. He  was  one  of  the  ultra-Tories  who 
revolted  when  Wellington  introduced  the  Catholic 
Emancipation  Bill,  and  who  actually  tried,  but  failed, 
to  form  a  Government  of  their  own.  Greville  pictures 
him  as  "  having  a  certain  measure  of  understanding  ; 
prejudiced,  narrow-minded,  illiterate,  and  ignorant, 
good-looking,  good-humoured,  and  unaffected,  tedious, 
prolix,  unassuming,  and  a  duke."  Rather  than  be 
balked  of  his  revenge,  he  went  over  to  the  Whigs, 
taking  with  him  Sir  E.  Knatchbull  and  the  Marquis 
of  Blandford.  His  appointment  as  Postmaster-General 
was  not  made  until  he  had  been  discovered  to  be 
unacceptable  to  the  army  as  head  of  the  Ordnance 
Department  and  had  next  declined  the  Mastership  of 
the  Horse.  The  Duke  threw  himself  with  energy  into 
his  new  duties,  and,  to  Greville's  astonishment,  Lord 
Melbourne  reported  that  as  a  Cabinet  Minister  he  was 
"  sharp,  quick,  the  King  liked  him  ;  he  stood  up  to 
Durham  more  than  any  other  man  in  the  Cabinet, 
and  altogether  he  was  not  unimportant."  Richmond, 
however,  soon  exhausted  his  devotion  to  Liberal  prin- 
ciples :  in  1834  he  joined  Stanley,  Lord  Ripon,  and 
Sir  James  Graham,  the  first  batch  of  seceders  from 
the  Government,  and  eventually  identified  himself 
with  the  Protectionist  interest,  the  side  that  naturally 
appealed  to  him  as  a  great  landowner  and  practical 
farmer.  Even  after  his  breach  with  the  Whigs  he  was 
to  be  seen  at  Holland  House,  patting  Lord  John  Russell 
on  the  back  and  treating  him  like  a  little  schoolboy. 
Lord  Althorp,  of  whom  it  was  said  that  by  his  fine 


352  THE   HOLLAND  HOUSE  CIRCLE 

temper  he  carried  the  Reform  Bill,  resembled  Bute's 
Lord  Rockingham,  in  that  the  strength  of  his  char- 
acter redeemed  the  slowness  of  his  intellect  and  the 
hesitation  of  his  speech.  At  Harrow  he  was  back- 
ward, though  at  Cambridge  he  distinguished  himself  in 
the  college  examinations.  He  was  out  of  his  element 
at  Spencer  House,  where  his  brilliant  mother,  a  daughter 
of  the  first  Earl  of  Lucan,  entertained  all  that  was 
conspicuous  in  politics  and  fashion ;  and,  as  the  wife 
of  Pitt's  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  became  the 
powerful  friend  of  Nelson  and  Collingwood.  Althorp's 
engrossing  interests  for  years  lay  in  the  prize-ring, 
shooting,  racing,  and  the  management  of  the  Pytchley 
Hunt.  He  entered  the  House  of  Commons  as  a 
matter  of  course,  and  was  second  on  the  poll  at  the 
election  for  Cambridge  University  which  ensued  on 
the  death  of  Pitt,  when  Lord  Henry  Petty  came  in 
first  and  Lord  Palmerston  was  last.  But  he  was  slow 
to  emerge  from  the  lower  ranks ;  though,  breaking 
away  from  the  traditions  of  Spencer  House,  which 
were  Tory,  he  attached  himself  to  Whitbread,  and 
took  some  part  in  the  proceedings  against  the  Duke 
of  York.  He  married  in  1814  Miss  Arklom,  the 
heiress  of  Wisedon  Hall,  Nottinghamshire,  and  devoted 
himself  to  the  improvement  of  her  estate.  Though 
introduction  of  the  oppressive  "Six  Acts"  stimulated 
him  to  attend  the  House  regularly  and  join  the 
Radicals  in  a  vigorous  opposition,  the  death  of  his 
wife  in  1818  drove  him  into  retirement  from  society. 
He  became  a  recluse  in  the  Albany  and  at  Wisedon, 
devoting  himself  to  political  economy,  statistics,  and 
the  "  Parliamentary  Debates,"  actually  plodding  through 
that  voluminous  collection. 


THE  GREY  AND  MELBOURNE  MINISTRIES    353 

The  medicine  of  work  saved  Lord  Althorp  from  misan- 
thropy. He  busied  himself,  though  vainly,  with  Bills  for 
the  recovery  of  small  debts,  and  resisted  the  increase  of 
the  corn  duty.  Thus  he  became,  before  the  retirement 
of  Lord  Liverpool,  an  unacknowledged  leader  of  the 
Opposition,  who  frequently  brought  Whig  support  to  the 
economic  plans  of  Huskisson.  But,  after  the  death  of 
Canning,  he  declared  that  he  knew  of  no  party  to  which 
he  belonged  and  saw  no  immediate  prospect  of  becoming 
again  a  party  man.  As  an  individual  he  supported  the 
repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  and  Catholic 
Emancipation.  Still,  his  rooms  in  the  Albany  were  the 
rallying  point  of  the  Opposition  ;  and,  Brougham  being 
considered  impossible,  he  was  induced  to  accept  the 
leadership  of  the  Whig  party  in  the  House  of  Commons 
in  the  course  of  the  session  of  1830.  Peel  started  when 
he  announced  his  new  position  by  giving  notice  that 
"  we  intend  to  take  the  sense  of  the  House  "  on  a  certain 
question.  A  few  months  later  the  Wellington  Govern- 
ment fell. 

Thus  Lord  Althorp  passed  in  one  stride  to  the 
Chancellorship  of  the  Exchequer  and  leadership  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  The  plain  country  gentleman, 
awkward  and  almost  rustic  of  speech,  acquitted  him- 
self to  the  general  admiration.  He  hated  office,  and 
was  painfully  conscious  of  his  deficiencies.  When  the 
crisis  of  the  Reform  Bill  was  at  its  height  he  told 
Hobhouse  that  he  had  removed  his  pistols  from  his 
bedroom,  fearing  that  he  might  shoot  himself.  Nor  is 
it  to  be  denied  that  he  committed  numerous  blunders. 
He  introduced  his  first  Budget  in  a  confused  speech, 
and  was  compelled  to  withdraw  provision  after  pro- 
vision. His  simplicity  frequently  placed  him  at  a 


354  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

disadvantage  in  dealing  with  cunning  men.  He  could 
manage  Attwood  and  the  Birmingham  Union,  but  his 
mishandling  of  the  difficult  negotiations  over  the 
renewal  of  the  Irish  Coercion  Act,  in  which  slippery 
individuals  like  Brougham  and  O'Connell  were  con- 
cerned, brought  down  the  Grey  Administration.  But 
Greville,  who  censured  him,  not  without  cause,  for 
numerous  nightly  shortcomings,  could  eulogise  him 
when  he  died  with  equal  propriety  as  "the  very  best 
leader  of  the  House  of  Commons  that  any  party  ever 
had."  With  practice  his  speaking  improved,  and  his 
knowledge  of  the  provisions  of  the  Reform  Bill  caused 
him  to  be  its  most  effective  advocate.  After  Lord 
John  Russell's  health  gave  way,  he  steered  the  Bill 
through  Committee,  and  met  with  imperturbable  good 
temper  the  angry  remonstrances  of  borough-holders 
who  regarded  themselves  as  being  robbed  of  their 
own.  It  was  during  the  debates  of  March,  1832,  on 
the  measure  in  its  third  form  that  he  made  his  memor- 
able reply  to  Croker,  who  had  belaboured  the  Bill  with 
statistics.  Althorp  retorted  that  he  had  made  some 
calculations  which  he  considered  as  entirely  conclusive 
in  refutation  of  his  opponent's  arguments,  but,  unfor- 
tunately, he  had  mislaid  them,  so  he  could  only  say 
that  if  the  House  would  be  guided  by  him  they  would 
reject  the  amendment — which  they  did. 

"  There  was  no  standing  against  such  influence  as 
this,"  said  Sir  Henry  Hardinge,  when  telling  the  story. 
Lord  Grey  was  anxious  that  Althorp  should  accept  a 
peerage  and  take  charge  of  the  Bill  in  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Lords,  but  his  successor  as  leader  of 
the  Commons  could  not  be  found.  In  spite  of  his 
mismanagement  of  Irish  affairs  and  consequent  resig- 


THE  GREY  AND   MELBOURNE  MINISTRIES    355 

nation,  he  was  equally  indispensable  when  the  Grey 
Ministry  collapsed,  and  Lord  Melbourne  was  charged 
with  its  reconstruction.  Althorp  was,  said  the  new 
Premier,  "the  tortoise  on  whom  the  world  reposed." 

When  his  father's  death  removed  him  to  the  Upper 
House,  William  IV.  paid  him  the  oblique  compliment 
of  getting  rid  of  the  Ministry  on  the  ground  that  he 
could  not  be  replaced  as  leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  Once  he  had  retired  to  his  beloved  Wise- 
don,  no  entreaties  from  former  colleagues  could  induce 
him  to  resume  office,  or  to  make  more  than  rare 
appearances  in  the  House  of  Lords.  "Your  presence 
alone,  without  a  word,"  wrote  Lord  Holland  in 
February,  1835,  "  mav  prevent  things  being  said  which, 
if  said  in  your  absence,  would  render  future  attendance, 
explanation,  and  even  controversy  unavoidable."  But 
Lord  Spencer  was  not  to  be  moved  by  Whigs  like 
Lord  Holland  or  Radicals  like  Joseph  Hume,  any 
more  than  by  Lord  Melbourne  when  he  pressed  upon 
him  in  1838  the  Governorship  of  Canada,  with  the 
Lord- Lieutenancy  of  Ireland  as  an  alternative.  He 
remained  constant  to  his  duties  "  as  a  relation,  as  a 
neighbour,  and  as  a  country  gentleman."  He  rescued 
his  heavily  encumbered  estates  from  their  embarrass- 
ments, and  rendered  permanent  services  to  stock-raising 
by  keeping  up  herds  of  pedigree  shorthorns  and  con- 
tributing papers  to  the  "Transactions"  of  the  Royal 
Agricultural  Society,  a  body  originated  by  himself  in 
conjunction  with  the  Duke  of  Richmond.  Lord 
Spencer  had  been  politically  extinct  for  some  years 
before  his  death,  but  he  handed  on  as  a  legacy  the 
epithet  of  "honest"  to  statesmen  who  have  been 
fortunate  enough  to  be  christened  John. 


356  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

Lord  John  Russell,  as  the  nephew  of  Fox's  Duke  of 
Bedford,  made  his  bow  at  Holland  House  when  he 
was  fourteen.  As  has  already  been  stated,  he  ac- 
companied the  Hollands  to  Spain  in  1808,  and  made 
with  them  an  adventurous  journey  across  the  peninsula, 
while  Sir  John  Moore  was  conducting  his  famous 
retreat  to  Corunna.  Thus  he  witnessed  the  hopeful 
beginnings  of  the  Spanish  revolution  and  its  temporary 
overthrow,  and,  much  to  his  credit,  returned  home 
disgusted  with  the  Whigs,  who  in  the  interests  of  the 
party  were  denouncing  the  war.  On  the  advice  of 
Lord  Holland  and  Allen  he  was  sent  to  Edinburgh 
University,  and  thus  broadened  his  education,  besides 
trying  his  oratorical  strength  as  a  member  of  the 
Speculative  Society.  In  after  years  he  owned  to  deep 
obligations  to  Edinburgh  and  more  especially  to 
Professor  Playfair. 

Though  he  entered  Parliament  as  member  for  Tavis- 
tock  in  1812,  Lord  John  Russell  took  some  time  to 
shape  into  a  strenuous  politician.  Weak  health  rendered 
travel  expedient,  and  in  the  course  of  his  journeyings 
he  had  an  interview  with  Napoleon  at  Elba,  discovering 
the  ex-Emperor  to  have  "  fat  cheeks  and  rather  a  turn- 
up nose."  He  also  wrote  prolifically,  but  without 
making  any  permanent  additions  to  literature,  though 
his  "Essays  and  Sketches,"  purporting  to  be  by  "a 
gentleman  who  has  left  his  lodgings,"  are  agreeable, 
and  his  "Essay  on  the  English  Government  and  Con- 
stitution "  is  an  able  exposition  of  Whig  doctrine. 
But  his  tragedy,  "Don  Carlos,"  is  terribly  pedestrian, 
and  Lord  Holland  trounced  as  it  deserved  a  translation 
in  the  Spencerian  metre  of  the  fifth  book  of  the 
"  Odyssey." 


LORD   JOHN    RUSSELL 


SIK  KKANCIS  <;KANT,  I-.K.A.,  IN  THE  NATIONAL 

I'OKTKAIT  OAl.l.KKY 


THE  GREY  AND   MELBOURNE   MINISTRIES    357 

During  his  early  manhood  Lord  John  made  Holland 
House  his  second  home,  and  entered  into  close  friend- 
ships with  Sydney  Smith,  Rogers,  and  more  particu- 
larly with  Moore,  the  association  being  accompanied 
by  a  touch  of  condescension  on  the  one  side  and  of 
obsequiousness  on  the  other.  In  1819  he  identified 
himself  with  the  cause  of  Parliamentary  Reform  by 
proposing  the  disfranchisement  of  corrupt  boroughs, 
and  notably  of  Grampound.  From  that  moment  he 
was  the  coming  man,  and  his  influence  widened  when 
to  the  advocacy  of  an  improved  representative  system 
he  added  that  of  religious  liberty  by  surprising  the 
Government  into  the  repeal  of  the  Corporation  Act. 
If  he  could  have  had  his  way,  a  fellow-agitation  to 
O'Connell's  would  have  hastened  on  Catholic  Eman- 
cipation in  England,  but  the  prudence  of  Grey  and 
Althorp  restrained  him.  He  had  stepped,  nevertheless, 
into  the  front  rank  of  Whiggism  when  the  Duke  of 
Wellington's  memorable  declaration  against  Reform 
precipitated  the  fall  of  the  Tory  Government. 

Lack  of  experience  and  feebleness  of  health  presumably 
excluded  Lord  John  Russell  from  the  Cabinet  of  Earl 
Grey.  He  became  Paymaster-General,  in  which  capacity 
he  is  remembered  as  having  given  the  Chelsea  pensioners 
their  gardens.  He  naturally  formed  one  of  the  com- 
mittee who  drew  up  the  plan  of  Reform,  and  was  chosen 
by  the  Cabinet  to  introduce  the  Bill.  Speaking  as  he 
did  to  an  audience  which  was  wholly  unsympathetic  and 
sometimes  openly  derisive,  Lord  John  hardly  rose  to  the 
occasion.  But  he  became  genuinely  eloquent  when  he 
brought  in  his  second  and  third  Bills,  and  throughout 
the  weary  debates  his  discretion  and  temper  were  second 
only  to  Lord  Althorp's.  Prudence  deserted  him,  how- 


358  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

ever,  when  he  penned  the  letter  of  reply  to  the  address 
of  the  Birmingham  Reform  Union  pronouncing  it  an 
impossibility  that  "the  whisper  of  a  faction  should 
prevail  against  the  voice  of  a  nation." 

Lord  John  Russell  was  headstrong,  and  after  he  had 
been  promoted  to  the  Cabinet  he  raised  unnecessary 
difficulties.  His  insistence  in  debate  upon  the  devotion 
of  the  surplus  revenues  of  the  Irish  Church  to  secular 
purposes,  after  Lord  Holland's  fatherly  advice  had  with 
difficulty  prevented  him  from  throwing  up  office  on  the 
point,  not  only  "  upset  the  coach  "  by  driving  four  of  his 
colleagues  to  resign,  but  also  committed  the  Whig  party 
to  a  principle  which  they  were  ultimately  forced  to 
abandon  after  suffering  ignominious  defeats.  He  had 
lost  ground  when  King  William  declared  that  he  would 
make  a  "wretched  figure"  as  leader  of  the  House  in 
succession  to  Lord  Althorp,  and  thereupon  dispensed 
with  the  services  of  the  first  Melbourne  Ministry. 

The  King's  prophecy  was  disproved  by  events,  for 
Lord  John  Russell's  "best  days"  were  undoubtedly 
those  of  his  leadership,  with  Lord  Melbourne  as  Premier 
once  more.  He  had  to  reckon  with  the  angry  hostility 
of  the  Court  at  the  outset,  and  converted  it  before  long 
into  steady  regard.  The  Opposition  were  compact  and 
guided  by  the  finest  tactician  of  the  day.  Lord  John 
Russell's  motley  host  consisted  of  mutually  suspicious 
Whigs  and  Radicals,  while  the  support  of  O'Connell, 
though  useful  in  divisions,  was  far  from  a  source  of 
strength  in  the  eyes  of  the  English  people.  In  one 
respect  he  failed :  his  manners  were  frigid  and,  as  Bulwer 
Lytton  wrote,  "played  the  deuce  with  votes."  The 
hostility  of  the  Radicals  was  to  a  large  extent  personal, 
and  they  lost  no  opportunity  of  avenging  supercilious 


THE  GREY  AND  MELBOURNE   MINISTRIES    359 

treatment  in  private  by  public  Routings  of  their  icily  calm 
chief.  But  he  was  a  supreme  manager  of  public  business, 
he  conducted  debate  with  much  tact  and  temper,  bearing 
the  whole  of  the  burden,  except  for  occasional  assistance 
from  Lord  Howick,  against  an  Opposition  including 
such  formidable  speakers  as  Peel,  Stanley,  and  Graham. 
The  diminutive  stature  and  thin  voice  could  not  annul 
the  dexterity  with  which  his  points  told,  nor  his 
tendency  to  platitude  obscure  the  elevation  of  his  mind. 
Sydney  Smith  paid  him  no  more  than  his  due  when 
he  declared  that  "  a  decent  good-looking  head  of  the 
Government  might  easily  be  found  in  lieu  of  Viscount 
Melbourne.  But,  in  five  minutes  after  the  departure 
of  Lord  John  Russell,  the  whole  Whig  Government 
would  be  dissolved  into  sparks  of  Liberality  and  splinters 
of  Reform." 

When  the  slenderness  of  the  majority  and  the  wreck- 
ing propensities  of  the  House  of  Lords  are  taken  into 
account,  Russell  must  be  allowed  to  have  accomplished 
great  things  before  the  Bedchamber  crisis  occurred  :  the 
Corporation  Act,  the  Tithes  Commutation  Act,  the 
Marriage  Act,  the  University  of  London  Act,  and 
the  Irish  Tithe  and  Municipal  Acts  made  up  a  good 
round  sum  of  legislation.  After  the  Government  had 
returned  to  office,  discredited  by  their  resignation,  the 
record  showed  a  lamentable  decline,  and  his  conduct 
during  the  Syrian  crisis  will  not  bear  analysis. 

Lord  John  Russell's  austerity  of  manner  in  public  was, 
like  that  of  Pitt,  laid  aside  in  private.  He  was  the  life 
and  soul  of  Grillion's,  where  he  played  many  pranks  with 
Stanley  and  other  political  opponents.  Though  but  few 
sayings  of  his  have  been  placed  on  record,  he  discloses 
himself  in  his  prefaces  to  Moore's  journals  as  a  capital 


360  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

judge  of  humour,  and  his  light  verse  is  tolerable.  He 
took  for  his  first  wife  a  widow,  Lady  Ribblesdale,  and 
became  a  most  affectionate  stepfather  to  her  four 
children.  He  repeated  poetry  to  them,  told  them 
stories  of  his  travels  and  of  the  great  men  whom  he 
had  met,  and  read  to  them  aloud  from  Moore,  Scott, 
and  Dickens.  His  second  marriage,  to  Lady  Fanny 
Elliot,  occurred  in  1841,  and  so  barely  falls  within  the 
period  with  which  this  volume  is  concerned.  It  was  one 
of  great  happiness,  though,  as  his  biographer,  the  late  Sir 
Spencer  Walpole,  points  out,  it  was  to  his  political 
disadvantage  that  his  weak  health  should  have  forced 
the  pair  to  retire  to  the  seclusion  of  Pembroke  Lodge, 
Richmond,  when  they  might  have  been  entertaining  in 
Chesham  Place. 

In  general  company  Lord  John  Russell,  though  rather 
reserved,  could  give  and  take,  and  unaffectedly  enjoyed 
the  brightness  of  others.  Though  Holland  House 
watched  over  his  political  apprenticeship  and  rejoiced 
over  the  triumphs  of  his  Reform  period,  it  could  not  be 
said  to  have  exercised  much  influence  over  his  beliefs. 
The  four  toasts  at  the  Fox  Club  are  drunk  to  the  memory 
of  Charles  James  Fox,  Earl  Grey,  Lord  Holland,  and 
Lord  John  Russell.  But  the  patriotism  inspiring  the  last 
of  the  four  when  he  made  the  great  speech  of  1850  on 
the  Colonies  would  have  been  unintelligible  to  the 
insular  Whigs  of  the  generation  before  his  own. 

Lord  Durham,  John  George  Lambton,  was  four  months 
older  than  Lord  John  Russell,  and  if  he  had  followed  his 
guardians'  advice  would  have  joined  him  as  a  student  at 
Edinburgh  University.  The  headstrong  youth  preferred 
instead  a  commission  in  the  loth  Dragoons,  followed  by 
a  Gretna  Green  marriage.  Through  an  unexpected 


THE  GREY  AND  MELBOURNE   MINISTRIES    361 

vacancy  in  the  representation  of  the  county  of  Durham 
he  entered  Parliament  in  1813,  and  three  years  afterwards 
a  second  marriage  with  Lord  Grey's  daughter,  Lady 
Louisa,  brought  him  within  the  Whig  pale. 

But  Lambton  was  far  from  being  content  with  the 
orthodox  doctrine.  His  impatient  spirit  could  brook 
neither  the  irresolute  leadership  of  Tierney  nor  his 
father-in-law's  reluctance  to  identify  himself  with 
Radical  measures.  So  early  as  1819  Lambton  declared 
himself  in  favour  of  a  drastic  measure  of  Reform,  in- 
cluding the  destruction  of  the  rotten  boroughs  and  the 
repeal  of  the  Septennial  Act.  Lord  Holland  expostu- 
lated, whereupon  the  resolute  youth  declared  that  he 
was  ready  to  face  complete  separation  from  the  party 
and  excommunication  by  Holland  House.  Lambton 
rapidly  became  a  power  in  the  North,  where  he  was 
known  as  "  Radical  Jack "  and  the  "  King  of  the 
Colliers."  The  Whig  aristocracy  continued  to  regard 
him  with  alarm,  and  he  made  little  attempt  to  conceal 
his  resentment.  It  was  probably  to  spite  them  that  he 
lent  support  to  Canning  and  accepted  a  peerage  from 
his  successor,  Lord  Goderich.  They  had  little  in 
common  with  a  man  who  approved  of  the  ballot  and 
triennial  Parliaments,  and  hailed  the  Revolution  of 
July  as  "glorious." 

Creevey  has  left  a  high-coloured  description  of  the 
splendid  discomforts  of  Lambton  Castle,  where  the 
brilliant  lighting  by  gas,  the  new  illuminant,  apparently 
served  mainly  to  display  the  shortness  of  the  provisions 
and  the  rarity  of  servants.  The  domestic  disorder  was 
typical  of  Durham's  imperious  and  capricious  mind. 
At  the  same  time,  he  was  deeply  attached  to  his  home 
and  children,  and  when  his  eldest  boy,  the  "  Master 


362  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 

Lambton  "  of  Lawrence's  delightful  picture,  was  carried 
off  by  consumption,  his  grief  was  terrible  to  witness. 
There  was  a  tender  side  to  the  man  who  was  "  King 
Jog"  and  a  "poor  victim  of  temper"  to  Creevey. 
Unfortunately,  his  colleagues  saw  it  but  seldom.  As 
Lord  Privy  Seal  in  the  Grey  Administration  he  was 
at  constant  loggerheads  with  Stanley  and  the  other 
moderates  in  the  Cabinet,  and  treated  his  father-in- 
law  with  positive  brutality.  "  If  I  had  been  Grey," 
said  Lord  Melbourne,  after  a  violent  outburst  on 
Durham's  part,  "  I  would  have  knocked  him  down." 

The  fact  was  that  domestic  misfortune  pursued  him 
throughout  the  crisis.  "In  eight  months,"  he  wrote  to 
Grey,  "  I  have  lost  son,  mother,  and  daughter.  When 
and  where  is  it  to  end  ?  I  live  little  in  the  world.  I 
have  few  or  no  friends  out  of  my  family.  My  children 
are  taken  from  me  one  after  the  other."  To  divert  his 
thoughts  he  accepted  a  diplomatic  mission  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, which  he  discharged  with  much  ability,  and  soon 
after  his  return  sent  in  his  often-threatened  resignation, 
nominally  on  the  score  of  health,  though  he  was  also 
much  out  of  sympathy  with  the  Government's  Irish 
proposals. 

The  Radicals  undoubtedly  looked  to  Lord  Durham 
to  succeed  Earl  Grey,  and  he,  on  his  side,  had  culti- 
vated close  relations  with  active  local  politicians  like 
Francis  Place  of  Westminster  and  Joe  Parkes  of  Bir- 
mingham. He  also  attracted  the  fitful  admiration  of 
Disraeli  the  Younger.  It  was  as  the  advocate  of  a 
further  instalment  of  Reform  that  he  figured  at  the 
Edinburgh  banquet  in  honour  of  Lord  Grey,  and  so 
came  into  public  collision  with  Brougham.  Lord 
Durham's  oratorical  campaign  through  the  Lowlands 


THE  GREY  AND   MELBOURNE   MINISTRIES    363 

resulted  in  the  silencing  of  his  rival  and  the  focussing 
of  the  popular  gaze  upon  himself  as  the  leader  of  the 
future.  But  it  also  angered  the  King  and  frightened 
the  Premier. 

Durham  was  passed  over  when  Melbourne  formed  his 
second  Ministry,  and,  feeling  that  his  time  had  not  yet 
come,  went  to  St.  Petersburg  again  as  British  Ambassa- 
dor. All  the  while  he  kept  touch  with  home  politics 
through  Parkes  and  other  correspondents,  and  as  he 
was  on  confidential  terms  with  the  Duchess  of  Kent 
and  Princess  Victoria,  he  had  everything  to  hope  of  a 
new  reign.  Yet  he  threw  up  the  brightest  of  prospects 
to  accept  the  "  most  arduous  and  difficult  task  "  of  pacify- 
ing Canada.  His  motives  were  undoubtedly  those  of  an 
unselfish  patriot.  But  he  made  mistakes  in  choosing  his 
staff,  and  when  an  outcry  arose  against  the  appointments 
of  men  of  damaged  reputations  in  Turton  and  Gibbon 
Wakefield,  he  took  refuge  in  haughty  silence.  Nor  did 
he  keep  the  Government  well  informed  as  to  his  motives 
when  he  issued  his  much-discussed  ordinance  banishing 
the  Canadian  rebel  leaders  to  Bermuda.  Though  really 
an  act  of  clemency,  it  bore  the  appearance  of  high- 
handedness, and  was  of  doubtful  legality. 

A  Front  Bench  deplorably  weak  in  debating  power 
was  thus  left  weaponless  against  the  envenomed  rhetoric 
of  Brougham.  Lord  Durham  was  thrown  over — "  sacri- 
ficed "  was  his  own  expression ;  he  resigned,  and  came 
home  to  write  his  famous  report  and  to  die.  The 
malignity  of  Brougham  actually  attempted  to  deprive 
him  of  the  credit  of  that  empire-making  treatise :  it 
owed  its  "  matter  to  a  felon,"  Wakefield,  and  its  "  style 
to  a  coxcomb,"  Charles  Buller.  Durham's  biographer, 
Mr.  Stuart  Reed,  has  disproved  the  slander,  without 


364  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

perhaps  laying  sufficient  stress  upon  the  unevenness  of 
temper  and  inability  to  act  with  others  which  stultified, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  his  splendid  abilities. 

Guizot,  a  close  observer  of  English  society,  described 
Durham  as  he  appeared  after  his  return  from  Canada. 
He  was 

"  the  spoilt  child  of  society,  imaginative,  popular,  still  young 
and  handsome,  bored  by  the  successes  and  irritated  by  the 
trials  of  life.  We  talked  of  Russia,  the  East,  and  Canada  ; 
the  conversation  animated  him  for  a  little  while  ;  but  he 
quickly  relapsed  into  silence,  tired  even  of  that  which  had 
attracted  him,  and  submitting  with  a  sad  and  languid  pride 
alike  to  the  illness  that  was  sapping  his  strength  and  to  the 
political  checks  and  domestic  sorrows  which  had  overtaken 
him.  He  would  have  interested  me  much,  if  I  had  not  per- 
ceived in  his  haughty  melancholy  a  strong  imprint  of  egotism 
and  vanity." 


CHAPTER   XXVII 
A   MISCELLANEOUS  COMPANY 

Jock  Campbell — Elected  to  Brooks's — Visits  to  Holland  House — 
Norton  v.  Melbourne — The  Irish  Chancellorship — Macaulay  enters 
Holland  House  —  Tears  and  a  scene  —  A  Cabinet  Minister — 
Macaulay  as  a  talker — Charles  Greville — A  political  factotum — 
The  friend  of  many — Poodle  Byng  and  Albany  Fonblanque — 
The  Grotes  at  Holland  House — Monckton  Milnes — Charles  Dickens 
— The  next  generation — Conclusion. 

AMONG  the  smaller  fry  of  Whig  politicians  who 
haunted  Holland  House  during  the  Reform 
period  was  the  future  Lord  Campbell.  Sheer 
industry  raised  him  to  the  Solicitor-Generalship,  after 
he  had  long  "grubbed  obscurely  at  chambers  in  the 
Temple."  There  have  been  many  worse  men  than 
"Jock"  Campbell,  albeit  that  in  dealing  with  his  pro- 
fessional contemporaries  he  was  economical  of  the 
truth.  The  sickly  son  of  a  Scottish  minister  at  Cupar 
had  no  influence  to  back  him  when  he  established  him- 
self in  Tavistock  Row,  Covent  Garden,  in  the  year  1800, 
with  an  engagement  on  the  Morning  Chronicle  as  a 
parliamentary  reporter  for  his  chief  means  of  sub- 
sistence. He  paid  95.  a  week  for  his  two  rooms, 
which  seems  moderate,  and  2s.  2d.  for  his  dinner, 
which  must  be  pronounced  excessive.  A  secret  voice 


366  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

the  while  assured  him  that  he  would  be  as  great  as 
Law,  or  Gibbs,  or  Erskine. 

Jock  Campbell  carefully  studied  the  conventions,  and 
informed  his  father  that  a  card  with  Lincoln's  Inn  upon 
it  was  as  genteel  for  a  young  man  as  Grosvenor  Square. 
But  he  permitted  himself  frugal  evenings  at  the  Cider 
Cellar  in  Maiden  Lane,  and  an  occasional  "  booze " 
on  port  and  claret.  He  was  also  an  ardent  volunteer. 
Briefs  came  but  slowly,  but  in  1816  he  could  afford  to 
set  up  a  groom  and  two  horses,  and  to  dine  daily  at  the 
Verulam,  a  legal  club  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields.  Five 
years  later  he  married  Miss  Scarlett,  who  had  pre- 
viously declined  what  seems  to  have  been  a  some- 
what diffident  suit,  and  in  the  following  twelvemonth 
enlisted  as  a  Whig  by  being  elected  to  Brooks's. 

Campbell's  initiation  at  Holland  House  occurred  soon 
afterwards,  but  he  sagely  considered  eminence  at  the 
Bar  to  be  a  useful  preliminary  to  success  in  the  salon, 
and  went  there  at  first  but  rarely.  He  attended,  how- 
ever, one  of  Lady  Holland's  Sunday  morning  receptions, 
and  described  with  some  humour  how  she  received  her 
subjects  on  her  throne,  a  pony  chaise  on  the  lawn.  It 
was  a  much  more  formidable  ceremony  than  going  to 
kiss  the  King's  hand.  By  that  time  he  had  taken  silk, 
on  Lord  Lyndhurst's  recommendation,  a  favour  he 
subsequently  repaid  by  calumniating  the  Chancellor's 
memory,  and  he  was  returned  for  Stafford  at  the 
General  Election  of  1830.  Though  he  was  passed  over 
on  the  formation  of  the  Grey  Administration,  he  became 
Solicitor-General  in  November,  1832,  and  Attorney- 
General  two  years  afterwards.  Active  behind  the  scenes, 
he  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  his  chiefs,  and  was  favoured 
by  Brougham,  whom,  nevertheless,  he  heard  "  very  much 


A   MISCELLANEOUS  COMPANY  367 

discussed  "  at  Holland  House,  just  before  the  Chancellor's 
vagaries  upset  the  first  Melbourne  Ministry. 

Campbell  showed  spirit  in  debate,  so  much  so  that 
the  Premier  had  to  rebuke  him  for  the  warmth  of 
his  language  when  the  House  of  Lords  rejected  his 
Bill  for  abolishing  imprisonment  for  debt.  He  also 
harried  Lord  Melbourne  when  Bickersteth  was  pre- 
ferred before  him  as  Master  of  the  Rolls,  and  was  with 
difficulty  dissuaded  from  resigning  by  the  bestowal  of 
a  peerage  on  his  wife.  But  they  continued  excellent 
friends,  and  the  defence  of  the  Prime  Minister  in  the 
celebrated  case  Norton  v.  Melbourne  was  entrusted  to 
the  Attorney-General.  The  retainer  caused  him  more 
professional  anxiety  than  he  ever  before  experienced, 
but  the  verdict  was  a  triumphant  acquittal.  It  was,  he 
thought,  the  most  brilliant  event  in  his  career. 

The  beginning  of  the  new  reign  found  Campbell 
basking  in  the  society  of  Royal  dukes  and  recording 
that  the  little  Queen  was  "as  merry  and  as  playful  as 
a  kitten."  He  was  also  held  in  great  regard  at  Holland 
House,  where,  in  1839,  he  heard  the  first  whisper  of 
the  suggestion  that  Plunket  might  be  induced  to  retire, 
and  so  create  a  vacancy  in  his  favour  for  the  Irish 
Chancellorship.  The  rumour  took  some  time  in  be- 
coming fact,  and  shortly  before  he  died  Lord  Holland 
was  employed  in  pressing  Campbell's  claims  on  the 
Prime  Minister.  "  I  have  received  more  personal  kind- 
ness from  him,"  was  the  grateful  record,  "than  from  any 
other  public  man."  That  particular  kindness,  however, 
came  perilously  near  to  being  a  job,  since,  as  has 
already  been  mentioned,  Plunket  was  sorely  unwilling 
to  lay  down  his  appointment.  But  as  Campbell  was 
unaware  of  his  predecessor's  chagrin,  and  refused  a 


368  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

retiring  pension  when  the  defeat  of  the  Government 
brought  his  brief  glories  to  an  end,  his  conduct  in  the 
matter  appears  to  have  been  blameless.  The  remainder 
of  his  protracted  career  falls  outside  the  scope  of  this 
volume. 

Greville  considered  that  Macaulay  was  the  most 
fitting  person  to  have  written  the  history  of  Holland 
House,  while  admitting  that  he  knew  it  too  late  to  do 
justice  to  the  subject  as  a  whole.  Macaulay  had 
already  made  a  literary  reputation  as  an  essayist  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review  and  his  speeches  on  the  Reform 
Bill  had  caused  Mackintosh  to  class  him  and  Stanley 
together  as  "  the  chiefs  of  the  next,  or  rather  of  this 
generation,"  before  he  entered  the  circle.  In  March, 
1831,  he  was  presented  to  Lady  Holland,  "a  large, 
bold-looking  woman,  with  the  remains  of  a  fine  person 
and  the  air  of  Queen  Elizabeth,"  at  Lansdowne  House. 
An  invitation  followed,  and  he  was  soon  accepted 
as  the  great  acquisition  that  he  undoubtedly  was. 
Macaulay  found  Lord  Holland  amusing  and  good- 
natured  from  the  first ;  by  and  by  he  came  to  appreciate 
the  resources  of  his  conversation  in  knowledge,  narrative, 
and  mimicry,  and  to  admire  the  uncomplaining  cheer- 
fulness with  which  he  endured  his  sufferings.  Lady 
Holland  he  regarded  with  mixed  feelings,  alive  to  her 
talents,  but  amused  by  her  affectations,  and  inclined  to 
resent  her  dictation.  He  ridiculed  her  terror  of  light- 
ning, the  cholera,  and  a  howling  dog ;  for  an  esprit 
fort  she  was  the  greatest  coward  he  had  ever  seen. 
He  made  fun  of  her  annoyance  when  the  French 
cook  was  ill  and  she  kept  up  a  continual  lamenta- 
tion over  the  dinner.  An  invitation  to  take  up  his 
quarters  at  Holland  House  almost  completely  was 


LORD    MACAULAY 

FROM    THE    PAINTING    BV   SIR    FRANCIS   GRANT,    P.R.A.,  IN    THE    NATIONAL    PORTRAIT   GALLERY 


A   MISCELLANEOUS  COMPANY  369 

declined,  because  he  preferred  his  chambers  and 
independence. 

Macaulay  knew  his  worth,  and  the  result  was  that  he 
received  every  attention  and  profuse  compliments  on 
his  essays  in  the  Edinburgh,  except  when  it  pleased 
Lady  Holland  to  display  temper,  for  some  unknown 
reason,  against  his  article  on  Horace  Walpole.  When, 
in  the  early  winter  of  1833,  he  decided  on  going  out 
to  India  as  a  member  of  Council,  there  were  tears  and 
a  scene.  Dear,  dear  Macaulay  had  sacrificed  himself 
for  his  family ;  they  were  always  making  a  tool  of  him. 
This  interference  he  very  properly  resented,  whereat 
she  became  profusely  penitent.  But  she  stormed  at 
the  Ministers  for  letting  him  go,  and  finally  provoked 
her  patient  husband  to  the  outburst :  "  Don't  talk  such 
nonsense,  my  lady.  What  the  devil  !  can  we  tell  a 
gentleman  who  has  a  claim  on  us  that  he  must  lose 
his  only  chance  of  getting  an  independence  in  order 
that  he  may  come  and  talk  to  you  in  an  evening  ?" 
Such  was,  evidently,  the  underlying  theory. 

So  Macaulay  went  on  his  way  to  India,  and  returned 
in  February,  1839,  to  become  member  for  Edinburgh, 
and  to  enter  the  Cabinet  as  Secretary  at  War.  His 
advocacy  of  the  ballot  was  scarcely  to  the  taste  of 
Holland  House,  still  less  his  Palmerstonian  attitude 
during  the  Syrian  crisis.  But  he  was  no  less  of  a 
favourite  on  that  account,  and  when  Lord  Holland 
died  he  feelingly  remarked,  in  a  letter  to  Macvey 
Napier,  that  a  whole  generation  had  gone  to  the  grave 
with  him.  Custom  seems  to  have  reconciled  Macaulay 
to  Lady  Holland's  rule,  since  Greville  represents  him 
as  enduring  with  exemplary  meekness  her  prohibition 
of  various  topics  of  conversation,  Sir  Thomas  Munro 
BB 


370  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

for   one    and    St.    Chrysostom   for  another,   when   she 
had  had  enough  of  them. 

Such    discipline    was    really   salutary,    for    it    was   a 
subject    of    not    uncommon    complaint   that   Macaulay 
exhausted  his   audiences  before  he   had  exhausted  his 
subject.    Sir  Henry  Taylor  said  of  him  with  truth  that 
"his  memory  had  swamped  his  mind";  lacking  origin- 
ality, his  talk  lacked  charm,  though  it  was  inexhaustible 
in  the  variety  and  extent  of  its  information.     Greville 
made  up  his  mind   about  the   "common-looking   man 
in  black"   at  their   first   meeting  and   never   altered   it. 
Macaulay     did     not     usurp     conversation     or     assume 
superiority,    but    somehow    he    did   not    please.      His 
voice  was  unmusical,  his  face  not  merely  inexpressive, 
but    positively    heavy    and   dull.      "  If  he   could  tread 
less    heavily    on   the    ground,    if  he   could  touch   the 
subjects  he  handled  with   a  lighter  hand,   if  he   knew 
when  to  stop   as  well  as  he   knows  what  to  say,  his 
talk  would  be  as  attractive  as  it  is  wonderful."    There 
is    no    getting    away    from    an    opinion   so    obviously 
unbiassed,  more   especially  as  Greville  did   not   dislike 
the  man,  and  placed  an  exaggerated   estimate   on   him 
as  a  writer.     "He  gave  more  than  society  requires  and 
not  exactly  of  the   kind " — that  was  where   he  failed. 
One  wonders  what  Luttrell,  a  person  of  supreme  social 
tact,  made  of  him  when  he  took  Macaulay  on   a  tour 
of    inspection    round    the     Holland    House    grounds. 
But,   though    the   historian   may   have   been   heavy   in 
hand  when  he  went  abroad,  he  was  a  model   of  gene- 
rous affection  at  home,  and  no  man  has  ever  maintained 
a  more  undeviating  standard   of  literary  and  political 
independence.    Of  the  various  elements  that  go  to  make 
Sir  George  Trevelyan's  biography  of  his  uncle  one   of 


A  MISCELLANEOUS  COMPANY  371 

the  most  fascinating  in  our  language,  skill  in  present- 
ment counts  for  much,  but  the  essential  moral  dignity 
of  the  subject  for  more. 

Of  Charles  Greville  it  was  written  by  Lord  Derby  or 
another  that 

"  For  forty  years  he  stood  behind  the  door 
And  heard  some  secrets,  but  invented  more." 

His  eagerness  for  information  was  insatiable,  and  though 
posterity  has  reason  to  thank  him  for  gossiping  with  the 
valet  of  George  IV.,  it  does  so  with  the  feeling  that  he 
ought  to  have  kept  off  the  back  stairs.  Again,  though 
his  journal  is  far  from  answering  to  the  caustic  epigram 
that  it  was  "  the  Lives  of  the  Apostles  written  by  Judas 
Iscariot,"  it  does  monstrous  injustice  to  individuals, 
notably  to  Palmerston,  and,  though  in  a  smaller  degree, 
to  Melbourne.  At  the  same  time,  Greville's  editor,  the 
late  Mr.  Reeve,  justly  claimed  for  him  that  the  leading 
qualities  of  his  mind  were  the  love  of  truth  and  the  love 
of  justice.  He  subsequently  modified  many  of  his 
harsher  opinions,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  quarrel  with 
his  definition  of  a  good,  true,  and  interesting  journal, 
as  his  undoubtedly  is — that  it  should  be  written 
"  without  the  slightest  reference  to  publication,  but 
without  any  fear  of  it."  He  always  contemplated  the 
possibility  that  his  Memoirs  would  be  read,  and  to  that 
end  erased  passages  relating  to  private  persons  and 
affairs,  and  dwelt  but  little  on  his  own  private  life, 
beyond  indulging  in  lamentations  over  hours  wasted 
on  the  turf  and  an  ignorance  of  books  more  imaginary 
than  real. 

Greville's  weakness  consisted  in  overrating  his  own 


372  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

political  importance,  and  in  occasionally  departing  from 
the  impartiality  that  should  properly  belong  to  a  Clerk  of 
the  Council,  a  position  he  held  for  nearly  forty  years. 
He  was  a  good  deal  in  the  confidence  of  various  states- 
men, notably  of  Lord  Clarendon  and  Sir  James  Graham, 
and  his  advice  always  made  for  moderation.  But  his 
pamphlet  on  Ireland  is  by  no  means  a  masterly  pro- 
duction, though  he  regarded  it  with  an  author's  com- 
placency. On  two  occasions  he  developed  an  abnormal 
activity  behind  the  scenes,  and  in  both  he  chose  the 
wrong  side.  The  first  was  during  the  crisis  of  the 
Reform  Bill,  when  he  abetted  the  "  Waverers  "  in  their 
ill-considered  attempt  to  patch  up  a  halfway  house 
between  the  old  system  and  the  new.  Again  in  1840  he 
set  himself  to  thwart  Palmerston's  Syrian  policy,  and 
carried  his  zeal  so  far  that  he  became  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  a  French  agent.  It  is  amusing  to  discover 
that  Guizot  did  not  consider  his  officious  advice  worth 
placing  on  record  Greville  put  his  abilities  to  better 
purposes  as  a  negotiator  during  political  changes,  as 
when  Palmerston  was  dismissed  in  1851 ;  but  Sir  Henry 
Taylor's  estimate  that  "  he  was  more  fitted,  if  not  more 
likely,  to  have  been  First  Minister  than  at  least  three 
of  the  First  Ministers  of  his  generation,"  must  be 
accounted  an  extreme  instance  of  friendly  partiality. 

Socially,  "  Punch "  Greville,  as  he  was  called  in  his 
prime,  or  the  "Cruncher,"  as  he  came  to  be  known 
in  his  later  years,  when  deafness  drove  him  back  on 
himself,  was  decidedly  a  power.  He  delighted  in  good 
offices,  and  must  have  been  quite  in  his  element  as 
manager  of  the  training  stables  of  the  Duke  of  York, 
though  his  racing  partnership  with  Lord  George 
Bentinck  ended  in  a  difference  of  opinion.  Sir  Henry 


A  MISCELLANEOUS  COMPANY  373 

Taylor  describes  him  as  "avowedly  epicurean,"  and 
averse  from  the  expression  of  ardent  affections,  but  "  a 
friend  of  many  and  always  most  a  friend  when  friendship 
was  most  wanted."  Little  need  be  added  about  his 
intimacy  with  Holland  House,  which  was  already  in 
existence  in  1818,  when  the  opening  of  his  diary  reveals 
him  as  a  wise  young  man  of  twenty-four,  and  which 
continued,  though  not  without  periods  of  estrangement, 
to  the  end.  The  "insolence"  of  Lady  Holland  is  the 
cause  assigned  to  one  of  his  revolts,  but  the  story  is 
guardedly  told,  and  may  well  have  had  two  sides.  When 
Lord  Holland  died,  he  was  proud  to  be  reckoned,  not  as 
an  old  friend,  but  as  "  among  the  first  of  the  second  class 
of  those  who  were  always  welcome." 

Among  the  minor  figures  that  appeared  at  Holland 
House  during  the  period  of  Reform  were  "Poodle"  Byng 
of  the  curly  hair,  who  went  everywhere,  talking  in  a  style 
described  by  Lady  Granville  as  "  a  word  for  the  wise  "  ; 
also  Albany  Fonblanque,  of  the  Examiner,  one  of  the  first 
men  to  bring  earnest  convictions  to  newspaper  journal- 
ism.1 A  more  incongruous  element  appeared  in  1840, 
when  Grote  the  historian,  and  Mrs.  Grote,  much  to  the 
amusement  of  Sydney  Smith,  were  induced  to  rub 
shoulders  with  aristocratic  Whiggism.  The  negotiation 
was  conducted  sous  les  formes,  and  the  invited  evidently 
regarded  their  acquiescence  as  a  serious  unbending  of 
principle.  They  "  even  went  so  far  " — such  is  Mrs. 
Grote's  illuminating  phrase — "  as  to  accept  friendly  over- 

1  After  Lord  Holland's  death  Lady  Holland  offered  Albany 
Fonblanque  one  of  his  books  as  a  memento.  On  his  choosing 
Dryden,  she  wrote  :  "  As  you  preferred  Dryden,  I  send  you  the 
copy  my  dear  lord  always  liked.  You  will  find  some  of  the 
volumes  in  bad  condition,  as  he  never  went  on  any  excursion 
without  taking  one  or  two  with  him." 


374  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

tures  from  Lord  and  Lady  Holland,  and  to  commence 
intercourse  with  Holland  House,  whither  Grote  would 
never  have  consented  to  go  in  past  times."  So  stiff- 
backed  was  Philosophic  Radicalism.  Grote,  however, 
had  outlived  his  earlier  prejudices  against  rank  and 
society,  and  was,  besides,  annoyed  for  the  time  being 
with  his  political  associates  because  of  their  apathy 
in  the  sacred  cause  of  the  ballot.  It  must  have  been 
a  meeting  of  the  prophetesses,  since  Mrs.  Grote,  as  well 
as  her  hostess,  possessed  a  grand  and  haughty  manner 
and  was  totally  exempt  from  shyness.  However,  "  the 
evening  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  imagination  "  of 
the  gifted  pair,  Charles  Duller,  who,  in  addition  to  being 
a  most  brilliant  talker,  was  thoroughly  sound  on  the 
ballot,  having  conceivably  acted  as  a  harmonising 
influence. 

The  literary  traditions  of  the  place  were  fittingly 
sustained  by  two  recruits  secured  towards  the  close  of 
the  period  in  Monckton  Milnes  and  Charles  Dickens, 
while  Bulwer  Lytton  was  also  an  occasional  guest.  The 
first  of  the  three  took  London  by  storm  in  1836,  after  he 
had  made  a  name  for  himself  by  the  slim  "  Memorials  " 
of  his  tour  in  Greece,  and  had  acquired  through  residence 
in  Southern  Europe  a  vivacity  of  manner  which,  by  all 
accounts,  took  old  stagers  of  the  formal  school  consider- 
ably aback.  Rogers  appreciated  him,  and  the  young 
man  returned  the  compliment  by  giving  breakfasts  at  his 
chambers  in  Pall  Mall  in  imitation  of  those  of  St.  James's 
Place.  At  Holland  House  he  is  said  to  have  earned  his 
best-known  nickname  by  entering  the  room  one  very  hot 
night,  when  Lady  Holland  and  a  large  party  were  suffer- 
ing from  the  stifling  atmosphere,  and  general  dulness 
had  crept  over  the  company.  "  Ah  !  here  comes  the  cool 


A  MISCELLANEOUS  COMPANY  375 

of  the  evening,"  cried  Sydney  Smith,  and  they  all  revived. 
In  reply  to  a  remonstrance  from  Milnes,  however, 
Sydney  Smith  denied  that  he  had  coined  the  names  of 
the  "  Cool  of  the  Evening,"  "  London  Assurance "  or 
"  In-I-go  Jones,"  after  the  boy  Jones  famous  for  his 
invasions  of  Buckingham  Palace.  He  added,  in  words 
which  Lord  Houghton  afterwards  admitted  to  be  those 
of  just  rebuke  :  "  Never  lose  your  temper,  which  is  one 
of  your  best  qualities,  and  which  has  carried  you  hitherto 
safely  through  your  startling  eccentricities.  If  you  turn 
cross  and  touchy,  you  are  a  lost  man." 

Dickens  approached  Holland  House  in  much  humbler 
mood.  He  appears  to  have  been  introduced  to  its 
mistress  by  Sergeant  Talfourd  in  1838,  the  year  of  his 
expedition  to  Yorkshire  with  Hablot  K.  Browne  to 
collect  the  information  reproduced  in  "  Nicholas 
Nickleby."  He  hoped  to  make  his  appearance  under 
Talfourd's  wing,  and  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  expressed 
alarm  at  the  prospect  of  a  solitary  visit.  Hampered  by 
the  diffidence  natural  to  one  making  his  first  advances 
towards  polite  society,  Dickens  appears  to  have  fallen 
an  easy  victim.  Lady  Holland  forced  him  to  disclose 
the  plot  of  "  Nicholas  Nickleby,"  and  when  he  was  about 
to  visit  America  she  remonstrated  thus  :  "  Why  cannot 
you  go  down  to  Bristol,  and  see  some  of  the  third 
and  fourth  class  people,  and  they'll  do  just  as  well." 

With  this  highly  typical  observation  my  attempt  to 
reproduce  the  figures  of  a  society  without  its  parallel  in 
English  life  must  be  brought  to  a  conclusion.  Holland 
House  was  the  centre  of  yet  another  circle  in  the  days 
of  Henry  Edward,  fourth  Lord  Holland,  and  his 
accomplished  wife.  Dinners  gave  way  to  afternoon 
receptions,  when,  to  quote  Hayward  once  more,  "  the 


376  THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 

far-famed  Countess  of  Castiglione  moved  through  the 
brilliant  throng  with  the  air  of  a  goddess  ;  when  the 
leaders  of  both  Houses  were  interchanging  grave 
courtesies  on  the  lawn ;  when  Lord  and  Lady  Russell 
and  Lady  Palmerston  were  talking  to  the  Comte  and 
Comtesse  de  Paris  in  a  group  which  the  Prince  of 
Wales  had  just  quitted  to  engage  in  animated  conversa- 
tion with  Longfellow."  Hoppner  and  Leslie  were  more 
than  replaced  by  G.  F.  Watts,  who  in  1843  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Lord  Holland,  then  Minister  at  the 
Court  of  Tuscany,  in  Florence,  and  so  began  an  intimacy 
to  which  Holland  House  owes  much  redecoration  and 
some  of  its  best  portraits.  But  the  time  for  writing  that 
page  in  its  history  has  not  come,  and — to  be  truthful — 
the  materials  are  wanting. 


THE    END 


INDEX 


ABERCROMBV,  James,  Lord  Dun- 
fermline,  286,  349 

Aberdeen,  George  Hamilton  Gor- 
don, Earl  of,  146,  244,  295-299, 

3".  338 

Adair,  Sir  Robert,  25,  30,  97,  101- 
103,  123 

Addington,  Henry,  Viscount  Sid- 
mouth,  25,  26,  136,  152,  260 

Addison,  Joseph,  9, 10, 91  and  notet 

175 

Affleck,  Lady,  237 
Allen,  John,  73,  81-89,  91,  95,  222, 

237,  238,  258,  327,  360 
Althorp,  John  Spencer,  Viscount, 

18,  145,  308,  350,  351-355,  357, 

358 

Alvanley,  Lord,  185,  229-232,  343 
Anglesey,  Henry  William  Paget, 

Marquis  of,  285 
Arago,  D.,  252 
Arnold,  Benedict,  103 
Auckland,  George  Eden,  Earl  of, 

93 

BANNISTER,  John,  243 

Bathurst,  Henry,  Earl  of,  39,  295, 

300 

Beaumont,  Sir  G.,  239 
Bedford,  Francis,  Duke  of,  104,  272 
Bedford,  John,  Duke  of,  146 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  79, 166, 228, 255, 

256,  266,  288,  333 


Brodie,  Sir  Benjamin,  253-254 

Brougham  and  Vaux,  Henry, 
Baron,  21,  37,  45,  61,  81,  84,  120, 
122,  135,  138,  140,  155,  158,  212, 
254,  255,  258,  266,  272-279,  283, 
294,  300,  306,  308,  313,  319,  320, 
333,  353,  362,  366 

Brummell,  G.  B.,  97,  230 

Brunei,  Sir  I.  K.,  69 

Buckingham,  George  Grenville, 
Marquis  of,  133 

Buller,  Charles,  363,  374 

Burdett,  Sir  Francis,  34,  216,  284, 
288-291,319 

Bute,  John,  Earl  of,  10,  n,  123 

Byng,  F.  ("  Poodle  "),  373 

Byron,  George  Noel  Gordon,  Lord, 

29,  43,  72,  no,  117, 153, 155,  159, 
161-163,  166,  168,  177,  186,  189, 
208,  209,  211-217,  222,  224,  234, 
288,  306,  330-332 
Byron,  Lady,  214,  215,  289 

CALONNE,  C.  A.  de,  30,  328 
Camelford,  Thomas  Pitt,  Baron, 

106 
Campbell,  John,  Baron,  no,  228, 

285,  365-368 
Campbell,  Thomas,  176,  177,  215, 

220-223,  281 
Canning,  George,  17-18,  34,  47,  48, 

99,  102,  117,  135,  137,  145,  149, 

*5*i  X53,  *54,  159,  I71,  26o,  264, 


377 


378 


THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE   CIRCLE 


284 ,289,  292,  296,  307,  311,  316, 

321,  346,  361 
Canova,  A.,  239,  241-242 
Carlisle,    Charles   Howard,     first 

Earl  of,  17 
Carlisle,  Frederick  Howard,  fifth 

Earl  of,  14,  16,  213,  317 
Carlisle,    George    Howard,    sixth 

Earl  of,  17,43,47,317-318 
Caroline,  Queen,  44-47,  112,   165, 

274-276,  288,  289 

Castlereagh,  Robert  Stewart,  Vis- 
count, 18,  135,  143,  191,  338 
Cavendish,  Lord  George,  154 
Chantrey,  Sir  F.,  234, 240,  241,  264 
Charlotte,  Princess,  274 
Chatham,  John  Pitt,  Earl  of,  154 
Clarence,  Duke  of.     See  William 

IV. 
Clarendon,  George  Villiers,   Earl 

of,  54,  282,  346,  348,  372 
Cleyn,  Francis,  6,  15 
Cochrane,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Dun- 

donald,  289,  290 
Colchester,  Charles  Abbot,  Baron, 

35 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  80,  128, 180,  248 
Collins,  William,  241 
Constable,  J.,  241 
Cope,  Sir  Walter,  .5, 6 
Cottenham,    Charles    Christopher 

Pepys,  Earl  of,  278 
Croker,  J.  W.,  47,  116,  316,  333, 

353 
Creevey,  Thomas,  34,  35,  45,  119, 

121,  152,  153,  155,  156-157,  158, 

260,  273,  276,  278,  287,  314,  340, 

349.  362 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  7 
Cumberland,  Ernest,  Duke  of,  282 
Curran,    John    Philpot,    121,   148, 

158,  161-163,  333 

DAVY,  Sir  H.,  247-250 


Davy,  Lady,  249 

Denman,  Thomas,  Baron,  64  and 

note,  228,  275,  279-283,  289 
Deffand,  Mme.  du,  97 
Devonshire,  Georgiana,    Duchess 

of,  126-128,  150 
Dickens,  Charles,  176,  360,  375 
Doyle,  Colonel,  209 
Dudley,  John  William  Ward,  Earl 

of,  71,  179,  181,  184,  188,  201, 

205,  256,  258,  263,  300,  311-316, 

333 
Dumont,   Etienne,   81,    266,    270, 

329-33^  333 

Duncannon,  J.  W.  Ponsonby,  Vis- 
count, 346,  349-35° 

Duncombe,  Thomas,  51 

Dundas,  Henry,  Viscount  Melville, 
32,  112,  154,217,  266 

Durham,  John  George  Lambton, 
Earl  of,  137,  308,  309,  350,  360- 
364 

EDGAR  (servant),  55, 77 
Egremont,      William        O'Brien 
Wyndham,    Earl    of,     235-236, 

237,  244 
Eldon,  John  Scott,  Earl  of,  37,  46, 

131,  217,  228,  266,  281,  282,  292, 

293,  300,  319 
Elgin,  Thomas  Bruce,  Earl  of,  236, 

241 
Ellenborough,       Edward      Law, 

Baron,  32,  266 

Ellice,  Edward  ("  Bear  "),  156,  304 
Ellis,  Charles,  Lord  Dover,  317 
Ellis,  George,  98,  316-317 
Elliston,  R.  W.,  212,  217 
Erskine,  Thomas,   Baron,  22,  44, 

108-113,  119,  140,  161,  198,  229, 

256, 366 

FAIRFAX,  Thomas,  Baron,  7 
Faraday,  M.,  251,  252 


INDEX 


379 


Fitzgerald,  Lord  Edward,  210 
Fitzherbert,  Mrs.,  119 
Fitzpatrick,  Richard,  General,  13, 

25,  95-99 
Fitzwilliam,  William  Wentworth, 

Earl,  35,  321 

Flahault,  A.  C.  J.,  Count,  344-345 
Flaxman,  J.,  175,  234,  241 
Fonblanque,  Albany,  373 
Foscolo,  Ugo,  323-325 
Fox,  Charles,  General,  21, 69, 76,  81 
Fox,  Charles  James,  10,  12,  14,  20, 

23-25*  27,  32,  33,  55, 78,  103, 122, 

127,  130-132,  135,  165,  176,  221, 

238,  241,  255,  360 
Fox,  Elizabeth,  Mrs.,  17 
Fox,   Henry.     See   Holland,   first 

Baron 

Fox,  Henry,  12 
Fox,  Mary,  Miss,  14, 33, 78-80,  160, 

251,  264 

Fox,  Sir  Stephen,  1-3,  91 
Fox,  Stephen.  See  Holland,  second 

Baron 
Francis,  Sir  Philip,  101,  118-121, 

156 
Frere,  John  Hookham,  17,  82,  125, 

151,  169-173,  185,  316 

GAINSBOROUGH,  Thomas,  126,  128 
George  III.,  10,  33,  34,  112,  131, 

142,  145 

George  IV.,  27,  34,  116,  119,  122, 
127,  136,  149,  164,  188,  200,  207, 
228,  240,  266,  276,  281,  330,  336, 

337 

Gifford,  William,  189,  238 

Gillray,  James,  106 

Glenelg,  Charles  Grant,  Baron, 
262,  263,  300 

Goderich,  Frederick  John  Robin- 
son, Viscount,  47,  91,  341,  361 

Gordon,  the  Duchess  of,  99,  154, 
284 


Graham,  Sir  James,  52,  322,  351, 

359,  372 

Granville,  Harriet,  Countess,  41, 
47,  48,  60,  6 1,  64,  69,  105,  179, 
185,  186,  200,  278,  296,  300,  337, 

338,  34<>,  344 

Grattan,  Henry,  158-161,  162,  283 
Grenville,  Thomas,  150-151,  258 
Grenville,     William      Wyndham, 

Baron,  32,  34,  125,  128-134,  145 
Greville,  Charles,  50,  54,  65,  75,81, 

92-95,   147,   150,  157,  169,  193, 

230,  234,  235,  278,  303,  304,  307, 

3I3.  345,  349,  353,  37^-373 
Grey,  Charles,  Earl,  22,  34,  35,  50, 

51,  53,  55,  7i,  131,  132,  i34-'39, 
145,  H6,  151,  153,  156,  158,  179, 
198,  240,  272,  276,  278,  282,  289, 
300,  306,  321,  338,  360 
Gronow,  Captain,  157,  230,  231 
Grote,  George  and  Mrs.,  373-374 
Guizot,  F.  P.  G.,  54,  76,  147,  257, 
304,  339,  345-347,  364,  372 

HAMILTON,  Charles,  13 
Hamilton,  Emma,  Lady,  125 
Hare,  James,  97,  99-100,  122,  127, 

128 

Haydon,  B.  R.,  234,  235-241,  242 
Hayter,  Sir  A.,  91 
Hay  ward,  Abraham,  62,  67,   175, 

182,  198,  199,  375 
Hallam,  Henry,  40,  183,  224-226, 

258,  S32,  347 

Heathcotc,  Lady,  213 

Herries,  J.  C.,  149,  146 

Hobhouse,  John  Cam,  209,  242, 
288-291,  353 

Holland,  Elizabeth  Vassall,  Lady, 
marriage,  21  ;  travels,  25-27; 
story  of,  35  ;  and  Murat,  39 ; 
and  Napoleon,  41-43  ;  and 
Queen  Caroline,  46;  on  Can- 
ning, 48  ;  dissatisfied,  49  ;  on 


380 


THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 


the  Reform  Government,  52  ; 
characteristics,  61-77  ;  letters, 
69-72 ;  death,  75  ;  and  John 
Allen,  82-85 ;  her  portrait,  91 ; 
mentioned,  117,  121,  158,  187, 
198,  201-203,  207>  213-216,  221, 
222,  223,  229,  237,  240,  242,  272, 

3i°>  315,  322,  326,  333.  336,  34i» 
346,  366,  368,  375 

Holland,  Henry  Fox,  first  Baron, 
3-4,  10-14 

Holland,  Henry  Edward  Fox, 
fourth  Baron,  19,  30,  375 

Holland,  Henry  Rich,  first  Earl  of, 
6-7 

Holland,  Henry  Richard  Vassall 
Fox,  third  Baron,  birth,  14 ; 
minority,  15,  16 ;  at  Eton,  17 ; 
at  Christ  Church,  17-18 ; 
travels,  18-21 ;  marriage,  21  ; 
takes  his  seat,  21 ;  travels,  25- 
27 ;  literary  works,  27-31  ;  Lord 
Privy  Seal,  33  ;  his  protests,  36- 
39 ;  at  Naples,  38 ;  on  Queen 
Caroline's  trial,  46-47 ;  pros- 
pects of  office,  47-49 ;  on  the 
Eastern  question,  50 ;  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Duchy  of  Lan- 
caster, 50-52  ;  in  Opposition, 
52 ;  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy 
again,  53  ;  death,  55 ;  as  a 
statesman,  55-57  ;  character- 
istics, 57-71 ;  conversation  at 
Holland  House,  90-96  ;  men- 
tioned, 113,  122,  126,  134,  136, 

151,  l6o,  165,  176,  198,  202,  206, 
208,  2IO,  211,  2X2-2X6,  217-219, 
220,  236,  237,  238,  240,  256,  258, 
262,  264,  276,  279,  28l,  288,  298, 
315,  322,  326,  329,  330,  338,  340, 

341.  345.  346,  354,  35^,  360,  3°J- 
369 

Holland,  Sir  Henry,  38,  62,  68,  69, 
178,  250,  254,  258,  313,  324,  340 


Holland,  Mary,  Lady,  14,  15,  16 
Holland,    Stephen    Fox,    second 

Baron,  12-15 
Hoppner,   John,  91,  92,  238-239, 

241,  375 
Horner,  Francis,  40,  70, 71,  81,  89, 

183,  197,  215,  225,  226,  255,  258, 

263-266,  286,  316,  330 
H  or  ton,  R.  Wilmot,  209 
Houghton,  Richard  Monckton 

Milnes,  Baron,  203,  374-375 
Humboldt,  Alexander  von,  Baron, 

70,  252-253 
Humboldt,  William  von,   Baron, 

252 

Hume,  David,  16,  96 
Hunt,    James   Henry  Leigh,    77, 

91 

IRVING,  Edward,  105 
Irving,  Washington,  333 

JEFFREY,  Francis,  Lord,  177,  203, 

217,  256-257,  258,  264 
Jekyll,  Joseph,  49,  226-229,  293, 

314,  324 
Jones,  Inigo,  6 

KEAN,  Edmund,  242,  243 
Kemble,  Fanny,  68,  147,  200 
Kemble,  John,  242,  243-245,  297 
Kensington,    William    Edwardes, 

Baron,  10 
Knight,  R.  Payne,  235-236,  297 

LABOUCHERE,  Henry,  Lord  Taun- 

ton,  348 
Lamb,  Lady  Caroline,  72-74,  213- 

215,  257,  3°5>  3°6>  3J4 
Lamb,  George,  211,  289,  290 
Lansdowne,    Henry  Petty,    Mar- 
quis of,  144-148,  154,  176,  204, 
208,  256,  264,  286,  307,  329-330, 


INDEX 


Lardner,  Dr.  D.,  262 
Lauderdale,  James  Maitland,  Earl 

of,  60,  81,  103-106,  289 
Lawrence,    Sir  T.,   91,   127,  147, 

163,  175,  236,  238,  241,  295 
Leigh,  Augusta,  Mrs.,  209 
Lennox,  Lady  Sarah,  10,  1 1 
Leslie,  C.  R.,  234,  236,  237,  375 
Lewis,  Sir  George  Cornewall,  169, 

172 
Lewis,         Matthew          Gregory 

("Monk"),  63,  95,  118,  167-169 
Liechtenstein,  Princess,  quoted,  10 

note,  91,  243, 251 
Lieven,    Princess,    70,    137,    300, 

312,  336-339 
Lilford,  Lady,  237 
Liverpool,  Charles  Jenkinson,  first 

Earl  of,  40,  47,  295,  300,  353 
Lockhart,  J.  G.,  169,  251,  317 
Longman,  T.  N.,  209,  211 
Lowe,  Sir  Hudson,  42,  71 
Luttrell,  Henry,  59,  60,  61,  66,  73, 

91,  95.   I74»  178,   183,   184-194, 

195,  196,  209,  316,  370 
Lyndhurst,  John  Singleton  Copley, 

Baron,  198,  276,  316,  318-321, 

366 
Lytton,  Sir  E.  Bulwer,  285,  358, 

374 

MACARTNEY,  George,  Earl,  123- 
124 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  Baron,  3,  39,  57, 
59,  60,  67,  83,  92,  147,  178,  183, 
201,  215,  258,  330,  347,  368- 

37i 

Mackintosh,  Sir  James,  58,  60,  80, 
81,  95,  160,  178,  180,  257-263, 
266,  269,  281,  283,  287,  318,  332, 

333 
Majocchi,  275 

Malmesbury,  James  Harris,  Earl 
of,  142 


Martineau,  Harriet,  158,  278 
Medwin,  Thomas,  43,  213,  214 
Melbourne,  William  Lamb,  Vis- 
count, 47,  52,  53,  55,  60,  90,  93- 
95,  122,  168,  200,  213,  215,  251, 
257,276,278,  300,  305-310,311, 

333,  358,  361,  3°6 

Melville,  Viscount.  See  Dun- 
das. 

Metternich,  C.  W.  N.  L.,  Prince, 
335-336 

Minto,  Gilbert  Elliot,  Earl  of, 
15,  59>  "9,  124-126,  130,  133, 

134 
Mirabeau,   H.  G.    R.,  Count   de, 

266,  329 
Moira,  Francis  Rawdon,  Earl  of, 

33,  119,  131,  148-150,  206 
Mole,  L.  M.,  Count  de,  70 
Monroe,  James,  333 
Montrond,  Count,  342-343 
Moore,  Thomas,  43,  59,  61,  66, 72, 

91,  95,  "7,  I47-H8,  l63,  166, 
170,  180,  183,  193,  203,  206-211, 
216,  240,  249,  281,  285,  310,  313, 

330,  334,  357,  259,  36o 
Motteux,  A.,  67,  343 
Mulgrave,  Henry  Phipps,  Earl  of, 

239,  288 
Murray,  John,  29,  208,  209,  212, 

216,  219,  325 

NAPOLEON  I.,  25,  30,  39-43,  87, 

130,  136,  142,  356 
Nelson,    Horatio,  Viscount,    125, 

238 
Newcastle,  Thomas  Holies,  Duke 

of,  4,  ii 

Nollekens,  Joseph,  97,  in,  241 
Northcote,  J.,  238 
Norton,  Caroline,   Mrs.,   68,   179, 

366 

North,  Dudley,  100 
Nugent,  Lord,  262 


382 


THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 


O'CONNELL,   Daniel,    50,  52,    53, 

159,  231,  350,  358 
Orleans,  Louis  Philippe,  Duke  d', 

329,  343 

Orsay,  Charles,  Count  d',  69,  342 
Ossory,  Earl  of,  14,  16 

PALMELLA,  Pedro,  Duke  of,  336, 

337 
Palmerston,  Emily,  Lady,  303, 337, 

375 
Palmerston,  Henry  John  Temple, 

Viscount,  50,  53,  93,   103,  125, 

146,  256,  300,  301-305,  340,  342, 

346,  347>  352 
Parr,  Dr.  Samuel,  80,  88,  95,  164- 

167,  183,  235,  281 
Pecchio,  322 

Peel,  Sir  R.,  232,  320,  353,  358 
Penn,  William,  8 
Perceval,  Spencer,  132,  135,   143, 

149 

Perry,  Henry,  119,  212,  220 
Pitt,  William,  23,  26,  32,  in,  122, 

125,  130-132,  142,  143,  151,  159, 

238,  295 
Place,     Francis,    289,    290,    330, 

362 
Plunket,     William     Conyngham, 

Baron,  49,  283-285,  367 
Ponsonby,  George,  34,  152,  154 
Poole,  T.,  250 
Person,  R.,  258 
Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Count,  322,  336, 

337 

RAIKES,  Thomas,  238,  344 
Redesdale,  John  Freeman  Mitford, 

Baron,  268 
Regent,  the  Prince.    See  George 

IV. 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  10  and  note, 

91,  101,  113,  126,  128,  238,  241 
Ricardo,  David,  258 


Rice,   Thomas  Spring-,   93,    263, 

349 

Rich,  Lady  Diana,  8 

Richmond,  Charles  Gordon- 
Lennox,  Duke  of,  351,  355 

Rigby,  Richard,  4,  n,  12 

Rogers,  Samuel,  17,  28,  60,  65,  68, 
71,  81,  91,  95,  97,  109,  121,  160, 
163,  166,  174-183,  185,  189,  195, 
209,  210,  218,  240,  245,  249,  258, 
259,  281,  313,  315,  324,  360 

Romilly,  Sir  Samuel,  58,  166,  215, 
255.  258,  263,  266-271,  290,  321, 

329,  333 

Roos,  Henry  de,  193 
Rose,  George,  152 
Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  96,  266 
Rumford,    Benjamin    Thompson, 

Count,  246-247 
Russell,  Lord  John,  25,  39,  48,  50, 

54,  69,  76,  91,  146,  177,  195,  200, 

209,  210,  215,  257,  259,  291,  318, 

350,  356-360,  375 

SCARLETT,  James,  Lord  Abinger, 
227,  263,  270,  276,  318,  321- 
322 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  167,  168,  169, 
181,  217-219,  227,  243,  249,  263, 
285,  295,  317,  324,  333,  366 

Sefton,  Earl  of,  83,  157-158,  193, 

278,  343 

Selwyn,  George,  4,  12,  60 
Seymour,   Lord  Webb,  225,  226, 

263 
Sharp,  Richard  ("Conversation"), 

180,  183-184,  215,  258,  286 
Shee,  Sir  M.  A.,  91,  242 
Shelburne,  William,  Earl  of,  3,  n, 

12,  79,  144 
Sheridan,  R.  B.,  22,  34,  96, 99,  103, 

in,  113-118,  152,  155,  160,  208, 

255.  333 
Shuttleworth,  Bishop,  28,  95 


INDEX 


383 


Smith,  Robert  Percy  ("Bobus"), 
17,  58,  80,  93,  203-205,  238,  258, 
260,  263 

Smith,  Rev.  Sydney,  17,  27,  60,  80, 
81,  95,  195-203,  204,  221,  224, 
226,  237,  249,  257,  258,  259,  260, 
263,  281,  286,  287,  288,  313,  318, 

3i9»  321,  340,  347.  360,  375 
South,  Sir  James,  251 
Southey,  R.,  181,  223-224 
Stae'l,  Madame  de,  94,  118,  170, 

222,  249,  314,  331-333 
Stanley,  Edward  Geoffrey  Smith, 

SL  52,  358 

Stanhope,  Charles,  third  Earl,  106 
Stanhope,  Lady  Hester,  107 
Stanhope,    Philip    Henry,  fourth 

Earl,  107 
Stewart,  Dugald,  81,  255,  257,  263, 

301,313 

Stothard,  Thomas,  175,  215 
Stowell,    William    Scott,    Baron, 

292-294,  327 
Sully,  Max  de  Bethune,  Duke  of, 

6  and  note 

TALLEYRAND,  Charles  Maurice  de, 
Prince  of  Benevent,  19,  25,  41, 
205,  229,  256,  300,  328,  339-342, 

343 

Talma,  F.  J.,  244 
Taylor,  Sir   Henry,  93,  178,  370, 

372 

Taylor,  John,  120 
Tenterden,  Charles  Abbot,  Baron, 

282 

Thiers,  Louis  Adolphe,  55,  300 
Thorpe,  John,  5 
Thurlow,    Edward,   Baron,    121- 

123 

Ticknor,  George,  334 
Tierney,  George,  20,  34,  151-153, 

260,  289,  340-361 
Tooke,  John  Home,  in,  121,  288 


Townshend,  Lord  John,  99,  100 
Trotter,  Mr.,  25,  30 
Tullamore,  Countess  of,  210 
Turner,  W.  M.,  233 

VAN  BUREN,  M.,  333 

Vere,  Aubrey  de,  5 

Vere,  John  de,  fourteenth  Earl  of 

Oxford,  5 
Victoria,    Queen,    240,    345,  363, 

367 

WALES,  Prince  of.    See  George  IV. 

Wales,  Princess  of.  See  Caroline, 
Queen 

Walpole,  Horace,  4,  10,  12, 13,  29, 
91,  124,  175,  369 

Warwick  and  Holland,  Countess 
Dowager  of,  9 

Warwick  and  Holland,  Earl  of,  9, 
10 

Waterton,  Charles,  253 

Watts,  G.  F.,  376 

Webster,  Daniel,  333 

Wedderburn,  Sir  Alexander,  122 

Wellesley,  Richard  Colley,  Mar- 
quis, 134,  284,  285,  333 

Wellington,  Arthur  Wellesley, 
Duke  of,  31,  176,  191,  229,  232, 
276,  281,  312,  316,  320,  341 

West,  Sir  Benjamin,  238,  242 

Westmacott,  Sir  R.,  241 

Westmorland,  Lady,  213 

Weyer,  Silvain  van  der,  67,  336 

Whately,     Richard,    Archbishop, 

327 
Whitbread,  Samuel,  34,  118,  135, 

I36»  I53-I56>  212,  239,  260,  269, 

270,  300 
White,  Joseph   Blanco,   88,   325- 

328 

Wilberforce,  William,  37,  282,  289 
Wilkie,  Sir  David,  147,  237,  239- 

241,  243 


384 


THE   HOLLAND   HOUSE  CIRCLE 


William  IV.,  51,  138,  240, 281, 307, 

350,  358,  363 

Williams,  Charles  Hanbury,  4 
Windham,  William,  30,  125,  130, 

139-143,  264 

Wishaw,  John,  225,  286-288 
Wollaston,  W.  H.,  250-251 
Wood,  Alderman,  275 


Wynn,  Charles  Williams,  224,  262, 
300 

YARMOUTH,  Francis  Seymour-Con- 

way,  Earl  of,  105,  231 
York,  Frederick,  Duke  of,  154, 207, 

231,  284,  372 
York,  Duchess  of,  167,  231 


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H6S3 


EA68?                                          H6S3 

AUTHOR 

Sanders,   L.C. 

TITLE 

The  Holland  house  circle. 

DATE  DUE 

BORROWER'S   NAME 

Sanders,  L«C» 

The  Holland  house  circ  .e. 


